


Face So Sunny

by Badass_iero



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer
Genre: Abuse, Anorexia, Depression, Insecurities, M/M, Scars, borderline anorexia, self conscious, self injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 03:02:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 33,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2452346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badass_iero/pseuds/Badass_iero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke gets sad and doesn't eat sometimes, But he's brave and is a cuddly punk rock boyfriend. Michael is abused and is scared of everything but he is strong and is definitely a badass. Ashton cuts, cries and gets away from his problems but he makes adult decisions and is the cutest anyone has ever seen, and Calum holds them all together, sure, he breaks sometimes too but he's very smug and he's got a wicked adoration for puppies and can teach young ones a thing or two. All the 1D guys are in here, a mention of Nick Grimshaw and Lou and Tom and Luxy.</p><p>Okay just to be clear here I do not like 5 second of summer and I do not listen to their music, I wrote all the 5sos fanfic on this page for my girlfriend (who is now my ex) loved them and so I wrote these fr her and we broke up but these fic's are awesome so I'm not taking them down cause I worked hard on them. And I don't like 1D either I was just fucking committed to my girlfriend as hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> -just to be clear here, this fanfic is not a statement saying Ashton should keep cutting, or Luke should be anorexic. that's complete bullshit, this fanfic, in my opinion, isn't really a fanfic, it's more of me using 5sos to write a story to people that have gone through things like bullying or self injury and I find it easier to relate to someone when you can have an actual image in your mind of them so this is more of a "read it so you can relate" than a "fanfiction about Ashton being a self injurer and Luke being borderline anorexic"  
> I'm hoping there's gonna be a boy or girl who struggles with anorexia, self injury, depression or anything and they're gonna read this fanfic and find out there's so much more worth living for cause that's what I discovered as I wrote this.

Ashton's point of view.

I ran home crying, more hurt than I've ever been. When I say ran I mean ran, and almost got hit by a car about five times because my vision was blurred because of how hard I am crying. I run as fast as I can up the stairs trying to avoid any unnecessary conversation. When I reach my room I practically fall into my painted black door and shut it as fast as I can, but quietly because I don't want to attract any attention to my room. I fall on my knees and scoot to my closet. I open my closet and search through my blurred eyes for my box of blades; the only release I have right now. Under the box I've opened and closed so many times is a very ugly jumper I got from my grandfather. When I first got the jumper and quite frankly for the past two years I have thought it was the ugliest jumper I have ever seen, mum tried to make me wear it to his funeral and I still refused, but right now that jumper looks so comforting. I pull the jumper in my hands, four strings still crossing over and tied in the middle, the way it was presented to me, because I never even tried it on. Through my tears and sobs I can see that the jumper is dusty and I try to wipe it off. I hold the jumper in my right hand and the box of blades in my left hand. I look between the two and I consider; cutting... or cuddles in a giant jumper. Still doubting myself I put the blades back in the closet and I unlace the bow and thread on the jumper. I pull the jumper over my neck and down my torso and forearms. Even though I'm still crying I feel comfort because the jumper is warm. As I stand up to go to my bed I feel something in the inside of the jumper. I pull my hands through the extra long arms and reach under the bottom hem that is flooding the middle of my thighs. I fish out an envelope addressed in my grandfathers finest handwriting. I try to clear my eyes of tears as best I can and reach over to my nightstand and grab my glasses. I slip my glasses on and begin to open the envelope. 

My Grandson, Ashton, 

I know this jumper; it's simply horrid. It is ugly but at least try it on, it's warm. I hope my plan works out, as you see I am an old man and I will die soon, and I got you this jumper not as a gift, but as a time capsule in a sense, so when fate decides the timing is right you will seek comfort in this jumper at your weakest time and you will find the 10,000 dollars I have saved for you in your time of need. Spend it wisely as I know you will, my favourite Grandson. Please remember me as you spend this money.  
So much love,  
your Granddad. x

I begin to cry again, but this time tears of joy. I drop the letter and the note for 10,000 dollars falls out and I pick it up but frantically search for my mobile. I find it through my blurred eyes next to my closet doors and immediately ring Michael. It only takes three rings for him to pick up but it feels like the longest three rings I've ever had to wait for. "Oh my god Michael" I say as soon as he picks up. "Ash I'm so sorry you had to see that" he says, still crying. "No! No! No! Michael you don't understand we are going to be okay!" I exclaim. "I know baby I know we'll be okay" he says, disbelief in his voice. "Michael listen to me!" I yell through tears. "Okay I'm sorry go ahead Ash" he says and I begin. "My grandpa that died years ago left me this jumper, and when I went in my closet to look for my blades and I found this jumper and instead of cutting I got the jumper on and there was a letter and 10,000 dollars in it! Do you know what that means?" I say. "Oh my god Ash" he says in a shaky voice. "We can run away and we'll be fine! We won't need to worry about your jerk-faced-homophobic parents and everyone at school!" I tell him, still crying tears of joy. "We can run away" Michael repeats in a slow voice. "Yes!" I exclaim. "We're gonna be okay" he says, still processing the situation. "Yes Michael" I say. "Oh my god" he says. "Just... Pack now okay and we can leave as soon as your family goes to sleep" I tell him and I can hear him hyperventilating. "Hey hey calm down we're going to be okay, we can finally have the life we've wanted" I assure him and he whispers "yes, okay I'm packing now. Ashton I love you, thank you so much" Michael says genuinely. "Love you too Mike okay?" I say. "Okay see you soon love" he says and we both hang up. I proceed to pack just as I know he will be right now but him frantically; he really needs to get out of his house, me not as much. My family isn't as hardcore homophobic as his is. I grab a gym bag that I haven't used since grade 6 and I begin grabbing small things like the stuffed animal dog Mikey gave me and the small blanket I can't sleep without and the giant ugly jumper from my grandfather that I am forever grateful for. I grab my iPod and sunglasses although I'm not sure why. I open my closet and search for my favourite t-shirts and the countless clothing that I non-reluctantly stole from Michael. A pair of earbuds falls out of the pile of clothes that are overflowing my closet and I yank them and toss them in the bag. I've stopped crying but I am still so touched by my grandfathers kindness that I will never forget. I grab jackets and bandanas and a box of letters that I've saved from friends and a bunch from Michael. I take a few photos off of my wall and cork board and slip them in my photo book and drop it into the bag. I pull a bag of drum sticks out of my closet because you never really know when you'll need them and pack my cajon in a separate bag. I throw four pairs of shoes and a few undershirts and underwear in the bag and I stand back and scan my room for anything that I am missing. I sign when I realise that I will have to leave my mobile because leave it to my parents to track it if I ever went missing. I fish out my iPod from my bag and I connect my iPhone and iPod to my MacBook and download all my files to my iPod so I can still have everything I need. Whilst that is transferring the data I scan the room thoroughly. 'Clothes, check, pictures and letters, check, drumming stuff, check' I say in my head as I look over my two bags. I check my computer and I still have 15 minutes to wait. I walk over to my window and I sigh in disappointment, not thinking about my best friend the whole time I've been packing and clearly not thinking through all the things that come with running away. I grab the dart gun I keep by my window and I shoot three darts onto his window. I wait awhile but as presumed he slides the window open and sticks his dark head of hair out and retrieves the darts before asking "what's up Ash?" "It's a really long story and I'm so, so sorry Cal but, me and Mikey are running away." I say and hang my head in disappointment at myself for leaving my best friend so abruptly like this. When I look up the look on his face takes me by surprise, not a look of hurt and betrayal but a look of understanding and sorrow. "Mate I get it, people are jerks and can't accept love when they see it, me and Luke have considering running away more times than I can count. I'm happy that you and Mike can go and live life, I'm gonna miss you, you dick, but I'm happy for you and sorry that it had to come to this." He says, jokingly calling me a dick. "I'm sorry it had to come to this too, and I'll miss you more than ever." I say to him. "We can probably keep contact, I can tell them we got into a fight and you wouldn't want anything to do with me if you left" he offers. "This is why you're the best, thank you so much Cal Pal" I say, genuinely knowing Calum is the best friend anyone can ask for. He blows me kisses and I blow kisses back and then we shut our windows. I check my iPod and mobile and I still have seven minutes. I get up and storm dramatically down the stairs and try as hard as I can to be as loud as possible in front of my family. I open the fridge and I roughly grab the orange juice and slam it on the counter, and grab a cup and slam the cup cabinet after slamming the cup on the counter. I put on the angriest face I can as my mum gets up from the couch and sits at the counter and asks "what's all the slamming Ashton?" I glare at her and say "Calum Hood is the biggest dick in the world" and I spin on my heel to put the orange juice back in the fridge, and grin to myself for being such a good actor. I put my mean face back I as I slam the fridge and spin back around and gulp down the orange juice dramatically. "And I never want to fucking speak to him again." I add. "Why such language for your best friend?" She asks. "Cause he is the ultimate douche and not my best friend anymore... Can we not talk about this?" I ask, snipping my tone. "Okay I won't ask anything more just try not to break anything on your little rampage and keep the language down because you do have little eyes and ears looking at you for what to do next" she says, reminding me that I do have younger siblings. "I understand that there's little's but maybe it's good for them to see the anger that I am feeling right now so maybe they know not to associate with the heartless prick I used to call my best friend" I say, and stomp out of the kitchen grinning wildly at my use of language and my excellent acting skills, because she totally bought it. I hope and pray that like Calum said this will not bring him into the mess when they come searching for me because I know they will. I sit on my bed and think about how exciting it will be to live with the love of my life and not have to worry about his or my homophobic parents and peers. It sounds cheesy but it really does hurt me that his parents and people at school hurt him. I check my mobile and iPod and the transfer is finished and I unhook the devices and clear my mobiles settings and reset it to the factory setting and place it on my desk face down. I grab my iPod and I download a calling and texting app and call Michael. "Hey it's me, I am using some app so they can't track my mobile calls and stuff. Are you ready?" I ask. "Yeah, wanna meet halfway, maybe at the park and then we can call a cabbie to take us to a bank or summat so you can get that check cashed and we can get on the next flight out?" He supplies. "Nah, I'll stop at the bank and get the money changed over, no worries" is all I say and he hangs up. I walk out to the hall and I see that all the bedroom lights are off except for a nightlight in each of the little's rooms. I check the time on my mobile; 12:57 and I marvel at my mum being awake minutes ago when I went to declare my made up passionate hate of Calum Hood. I write a small note to my little's that just says "love you" and hope they know that I'm not running away because of them. I creep down the stairs and see that the whole house is in fact empty and everyone is in their rooms sleeping. I proceed back to my room and slide open my window, debating how I will get all my things out without having to drop everything. Just as I try to strap the cajon bag to the tree so I can climb down with my bag Calum is climbing down the siding of his house and helping me down my tree and holding the cajon bag. "Thanks mate, gonna miss you" I say to him. "Gonna miss you too, where you think you're going?" He asks. "Hopefully America" I say. He nods and places the cajon bag on the ground and pulls me into a hug. We both get emotional and tear up a little but as we pull away Calum hits a fist on his chest and says "shut up Calum, you're a man" and I laugh. I reach to the top of his head and shuffle his red beanie and black hair and he smiles and immediately smacks my hand away and fixes his hair and beanie. "Later mate" I say and I grab my cajon bag and begin to walk backwards. "Until next time yeah?" Calum says and I nod. "Love you, take care of our little Lukey" I say and he nods and says "love you too man, and take care of Mike" and I nod and turn around, again getting emotional, and occasionally looking back until he is out of sight, and proceed to the park where my boyfriend will be meeting me. 

*earlier that day*

"Yeah I'm going to come out to my parents today." Michael says, and takes me by surprise. "Are you sure?" I ask. "So sure." He assures. "and If there's a negative response?" I ask. "I might get kicked out, might never get to leave the house again, and I'll obviously get a beating." And as those words come out of his mouth it physically hurts me like someone just punched me in the stomach and knocked the wind out of me and then hit me again in the chest. "No Mike please I don't want them to hurt you anymore" I say, taking his hands and looking him in the eyes. "Hey, Ash, I love you more than I care for this" he motions to his body "and I'd rather be exactly who I am with a few bruises then not be who I am and have a broken heart and a boyfriend that I can't properly love" he says. "Alright well..." I say, still not sure. "Let's go home okay?" Michael suggests. "Yours or mine?" I ask. "Mine. If you'd please, come with me? Maybe when I come... Come out to my parents you can be there?" He asks, stuttering. "No problem, I'll be there every step of the way because I love you more than life" I say. "Thank you" he says, genuinely. "Okay let's go." I say and nod towards the bike rack where our were locked up.

Two girls pass us holding hands and leaning into each other and giggling and Mikey asks "are you guys a thing?" And they both look up and blush and nod. "Cute" I say and smile at them. "You?" The taller girl asks and nods her head at me and Mike. I nod and say "Can you keep it down?" And they both get a sympathetic look and they look at each other and look back at me and nod. "Thanks" I say and they walk off. "See. That's what I'm saying, I want to love you openly like that and be the boyfriend I should be" Mikey says, staring at the ground. "Did you see the l....look they gave each other before i said anything to them? they were just staring into each other's eyes like n...nobody else existed in the world. And the look they gave each other when we said we weren't out yet, like they remember when they weren't out and how h...hard it was" Mikey says, choking back emotion. "But I can't risk your parents freaking out and hurting you more than they already do" I say. "I can take it, I've taken it for the last 16 years." Mikey says with a stony expression on his face. The sleeves on his flannel are pulled down and he's never gone a day that I can remember without long sleeves and jeans to cover all the bruises and cuts his parents give him, not to mention the others at our school that beat him up and push him into lockers. Mainly his step dad but sometimes his mum will hit him with things around when he doesn't do exactly what she wants or the way she wants it done. His parents have always voiced their opinion on everything they think is wrong, like being gay for example and I know that's just another thing they will beat him to a bloody pulp for. Mikey makes me leave before they do it because he knows well that I would do something. "Listen. If we maybe get jobs and save up for awhile I could probably borrow money from my parents and we can leave, we can run away and we'd be fine, it sounds like some damn love movie or book but we could go and not look back" I say, not fully thinking what I said through as I often do. "It's a possibility" Mikey says, looking intently at the moving tire in front of him as I watch the gears turn in his head as he thinks about how this would work. "Yeah...yeah." He agrees. 

We ride quietly the rest of the way to his house, my stomach flipping and knots tying tighter and my hands shaking, and I know Mikey feels the same thing. We throw our bikes down behind his garage and I hug him tightly, whispering sweet nothings like "I love you cupcake" and "it'll be fine" reassuring him that we're gonna be okay, and we proceed to walk inside.

"Michael... Ashton" Mikey's mum greets as we walk in. "Mumma Clifford" I say and nod my head at her. "What brings you here today?" She asks, rather rudely, in a snippy tone. "I was hoping to talk to you and dad today and I wanted Ash 'round. Could you maybe get dad and meet me... us the living room...?" Mikey asks, in an unsteady voice. Immediately she gets an angry look. "I will go get your father but it better be quick because if you can't tell I'm in the middle of making dinner" she replies, staring down at the carrots and onions she is currently chopping. "Thank you." Mikey says as we walk into his living room. "Hey, I love you" I say to him and pull him close. As soon as we hear footsteps approach we scoot apart and it hurts both of us. We've had to hide for so long but now it's happening and we have looked forward to this day for so long but now that it's seconds ahead of us I'm mortified. "Thank you for coming, I just wanted to sit you down and let you know that I respect you both fully and I'm more than grateful for the roof over my head and the food on the table and I respect your views but I don't believe everything that you do, and one of those things is homosexuality, which leads us to the reason we are talking" Michael says, strong and confident and I am holding back a smile because I am so proud of him right now. "And the reason is that I am gay." He breathes out, and I couldn't have worded anything he just said any better. I watch his parents process what he just said and the only thing I see is anger. Mikey tenses up and I scoot closer to him slightly to let him know 'I'm right here' and his step dad points a finger in my direction right away. "You. This is all your fault. You turned him gay. I can't believe this. I'm appalled right now." He says and angrily paces around the room. "It's not anything to do with him, yes, he is who I want to be with but he didn't whisper in my ear one day 'you are gay' and force me to be gay, I made the choice, well not choice but Dad it's who I am" Mikey says, and I feel pride building inside me hearing him stand up for me. "You're my son, my straight son, you can't just come in here and say you are gay and expect to live normally the rest of your life!" His mum exclaims. "And you, you can't keep seeing him. Michael I'm very disappointed in you. We are moving and you will be homeschooled, as for you, young man, you will leave this house, you will forget this ever happened, you will no longer see my son and you will break all ties and disconnect completely with my son" he says pointing at me. "I'm sorry but with all due respect sir I can't just do that" I say, blatantly. "All due respect sir my ass, I said get out of my house, and Michael get to your room, I'll deal with you in a minute." He says, moving closer to us on the couch. I don't move and Mikey grabs my hand and laces his fingers in mine and we sit there in silence. "I said get out!" He yells and Mikey flinches. I still don't get up and go and his face flushes red with anger. "I said get in your room!" His step dad yells and before I can do anything his hand flies through the air and slaps Mikey's face. Mikey doesn't do anything and that hurts me that he is so used to getting hit that he doesn't raise a hand to the wound or cover himself. He stands up still holding my hand and starts to walk up the stairs with me and before we even reach the stairs I feel a yank and I am being pulled by the collar of my shirt away from Mikey. I get dragged to the front door and thrown out, fighting the whole way but I'm not as strong as Mikey's step dad by far. I stand on the porch crying and looking through the window as Mikey's step dad walks back over to him and punches him and kicks him repeatedly and I try as hard as I can to get back in but it's locked with more locks than I can count. Mikey sees me through the window whilst still being beat and he mouths 'go home' to me and I nod 'no' profusely but he insists.

Bookshelves, coffee tables, and lamp stands fall on the floor as Mikey is dragged and kicked into the next room and out of my sight and am full on sobbing. It hurts to see my boyfriend being beaten and I can't do anything about it. I obey his request and I go home. I run as fast as I can, and cry harder than I ever have in my entire life.  
\--------  
(Still) Ashton's point of view 

Before I get to the park I stop at the bank and get the check changed over to bills, mostly American bills because we will only be here a little while longer so we don't need a lot of our currency. I thank whoever is up in heaven for putting a stoned teenager to run the night shift, relieved that he didn't notice that he was changing such a large amount. After the bank I walk to the park, bittersweet emotions flooding through me; excitement to be with my boyfriend for the rest of our lives, free from our parents and peers, but sad because I am leaving my best friend and my little's and my home and the neighbourhood I grew up in and all the places I've made memories with the blokes. "and even if we won't admit it to ourselves we'll walk upon these streets and think of little elves" plays in my head as I walk on the streets that my music has filled at all hours of the night and our scent of spray paint has flooded as we expressed ourselves on the nights we couldn't sleep. I pass my old job, the corner flower shoppe, all the beautiful memories come and go through my mind. The street lights illuminate the street in orange hues and the chartreuse overhang giving shade to my favourite book store, the one where they wrap all the books in brown paper and give a brief description of the book on a tag attached to the book so you can't judge a book by it's cover. My heart beats faster as I near the park, my skin getting goosebumps as I stare into the cerulean blue sky and the lyrics come through my head "say my name, and every colour illuminates, we are shining, and we will never be afraid again" and those lyrics give me hope. I pull the hood up on my hoodie and pick up the pace as soon as I see the sign for the park entrance. "Sunshine!" Mikey yells as soon as he sees me. I run and place my bags down gently as does he and he pulls me into a warm hug and a passionate kiss. A catcall comes from a tree nearby and Mikey pulls out of the kiss laughing. "Luke I said go home" Mikey yells into the air. A sweet, innocent laugh comes and then a rustling of branches before a blonde patch of hair and a wide pierced smile comes out of the darkness and greets me in a hug. "Hi Lukey" I say and he giggles. "America yeah?" He asks and I nod. "Well mates have an ace time and don't forget about us" he says. "How could I forget a douche like you" Mikey says jokingly. "Okay I'll take you guys to the Porte" Luke says and nods to the curb. "Wow thanks mate" I say and Mikey smiles. As we get into the car Luke says "I really think what you guys are doing is right" and Mikey says "thanks man, and I'm sorry it had to come to us having to leave..." And he looks down at his feet, something he does often when he's upset. "Me and Cal have thought about it too I don't blame you" Luke says, and smiles at the thought of Calum. "You guys should come" I say, again, not thinking before I say anything. The car comes to a complete stop and Luke thinks about it for awhile, nervously biting his lip ring, but then says "Calum couldn't ever leave his little's..." And looks down at his feet. "You're probably right mate. Bloke is such a family man... he couldn't do that." I say and sigh that I ever opened my mouth. The rest of the ride to the air porte is quiet, the soft hum of Patrick Stumph's voice playing through the radio and Mikey's slight singing along of "the foxes hunt the hounds, it's all over now, before it has begun, we've already won." As we arrive it isn't too busy but the tension between Mikey and Luke is tight. "Listen" I say. "I can feel there's summat between you guys and someone's gotta voice what it is now because I do not want to leave on a negative note and have the burden of you guys having something between you while we are oceans away" I say and Luke cracks first. "I just really don't know what to do after you leave, what's the point of going to school? Why should I go to work? Who's gonna play guitar with me? What's... What's the point of...living?" Luke chokes out. He shakes his head in disbelief and stares at the ground. "Luke, Cal needs you, I don't know if this has ever registered with you before but Calum loves you. He loves you so much and if you dropped out of school and you quit your job and stop playing the guitar then his world would end because you are his world. Please don't let us leaving change the way you look at life... Mate we are going to miss you more than anything but you can't think about us leaving right now, you need to think of your life and your other half, Calum." I say, going to him and hugging him. "You're right, I'm being a twat and selfish right now, I need to think about him too. Thanks Ash" Luke says as he collects himself. "I rest the responsibility of being the cutest gay couple at school in your hands, since of course me and Ash will no longer be there" Mikey says with a smirk. Luke laughs through the last of his tears and smiles and says "passing the torch huh?" And Mikey verifies this by doing a 'pass the torch' gesture. We all laugh and Luke says "right then, well you need to get going." And hugs us both. "Love you man" Mikey says to him. "Love you too Mike, don't forget about me yeah?" Luke says. "Never" Mikey replies. We head to the doors, our bags hanging from our shoulders. "Are you scared?" Mikey asks me innocently as we walk through the doors. "Terrified, but it's not so bad with you right here" I say and he blushes and gets on his tip toes and grabs the sides of my face and pulls me into a kiss. "It feels so good to be able to do that in public" he says and I nod in agreement.

We hold hands as we walk through the porte and I use the bathroom while Mikey buys the next tickets out to America. As I come out of the bathrooms I ask Mikey "did you leave your mobile at home?" And he nods. "We are going to a place called Chicago, it's one of the major cities of America and I've heard of it before so I think it'll be a good place" he says and hands me the tickets. I kiss his cheek and we head to security. Mikey rolls his eyes when the patrol tells him he has to take off his belt, boots, and bracelets. I struggle to take off my own bracelets in fear of anyone seeing my wrists but then I think to myself "new life, new rules." Mikey sees that I took my bracelets off and slides closer to me and asks "are you okay?" and I nod and give him a quick grin and he smiles. We put our shoes back on and we help each other put our bracelets back on, tying and clipping and hooking all the different styles of bracelets we've collected. "I even packed my American flag shirt" Mikey says with a cheeky grin. "You're a giant dork" I tell him and he lays on my lap and looks up and at me and says "you too" and smiles.

"Gate A11 boarding for America now" a flight attendant says through a speaker and Mikey gets up. I follow him to the plane and he plops down in first class and I raise my eyebrow at him and he laughs and asks "what?" And I say "starting this out right and buying the most expensive seat on the plane huh?" And he laughs and nods. "My silly boy" I say as I ruffle my hands through his green hair. I pack our four bags in the overhead compartment, smiling when I see his guitar bag next to my cajon bag. I sit down next to him and pull my seat belt on and ask "ready for our biggest adventure yet?" and put my hand out. "Ready" Mikey assures and puts his hand in mine. I smile and lace his fingers in mine and I lean back in my chair and close my eyes, he lifts our hands and presses a kiss to my knuckles and does the same as me, hoping to catch a few hours of sleep on this long flight ahead of us. 

 

"Babe wake up, what do you want to eat?" Mikey says as he shakes my shoulders gently. "What's my choices?" I ask and Mikey rattles off a list of foods and I decide one without even opening my eyes. 

"Ashton, silly, you gotta eat, you can't just sleep the whole flight!" Mikey says and that causes a slight smile on my face. I open my eyes and stretch as people walk past back and forth next to our seats. "So wait what did I get to eat?" I ask, completely forgetting what I ordered. "Mac and cheese" he says. "And what'd you get?" I ask. "Mac and cheese" he says with a cheeky grin. "Copycat" I tease. "Nope you're the copycat, I ordered first." He supplies and reaches a hand to my side and tickles right under my ribs. "Were you two the mac and cheese?" A flight attendant clears her throat and asks dryly. "Yeah" I say, blushing, and nod and she hands us the two plates and before I can say thank you she's already walking away. "We probably did not give her the proper image of teenage guys..." Mikey says and laughs. "Tickling and mac and cheese? Yeah probably not" I add and Mikey laughs while forking noodles into his mouth. "We're fucking mad sometimes" I say and he nods. 

Calum's point of view

"Love you too man, and take care of Mike" I say to Ashton as he walks away, occasionally glancing back at me. As soon as he is out of sight I sigh and climb back up my window and settle in bed. My mobile vibrates on my desk and I count the number of vibrates, 4, notifying me that it is my boyfriend. 

-hi. Just dropped off Ash and Mike at the porte... Can I come over?- 

I smile as I read the text and I text back 

-I'd love that, please do- 

And I settle in bed, maybe making a little space where Luke will lay next to me. About thirty minutes later a knock comes on my window and I get up and my stomach does all these flips that make me feel like a 14 year old girl but I proceed to open the window for my boyfriend who is smiling, but his eyes tell me he is distressed. "Princess" Luke says as he comes through the window and hugs me. "No light, no light in your bright blue eyes" plays in my head when I can register the hurt in his eyes. "Lukey, are you okay?" I ask and he pulls out of the hug and makes me sit on my bed, and seats himself and starts "Cal I am going to miss them like fuck, like it was us four, and now it's just us two, I do babe I love you so much but I am going to miss them, and I don't want to give up on life but I feel really hopeless right now and maybe a bit jealous that Ashton and Michael get to leave and go to a place where they can love each other and be free from all this" he waves his hand at nothing in particular "all this shit and we can't do that and it hurts man it fucking hurts but damn it I will still love you even if we have to be this secret item for the rest of our lives" he breathes out and i drape my arm over his shoulder and lean into his side and place a wet sloppy kiss on his cheek, and in response I get his adorable giggle that I love making him do. "Do...this is gonna sound wacky but would you wanna run away too?" (lol) I ask, biting my lip, nervous about his response. "You... You would do that with me?" He asks. "In a heartbeat" I say and his eyes get watery "but you'll have to leave your little's and your other friends and your job and... Are you sure?" He asks. "Yeah. Let's give it a little time, we can collect a sum of money and find out where Mike and Ash are located and then we'll be off and maybe join them?" I say. Luke's eyes fill with hope, restoring back to the beautiful blue I fell in love with. "These night never seem to go to plan, I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand, oh won't you stay with me, cause you're all I need" the radio hums, filling the silence as I get lost in Luke's eyes. "You're giving up your everything to run away with me?" He asks. "I'm not giving up everything because you're my everything, did you know that?" I ask. "Fucking endearing bloke you are." Luke says and laughs. I lay down on my right and Luke fits himself next to me, his back pressed against my chest and stomach and my chin rested in his shoulder. "Why am I always the little spoon?" Luke huffs out. "Cause" is all I say before falling asleep to the rising and falling of his chest and his hushed raspy voice singing along to Dan Smith's "but if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all, and if you close your eyes does it almost feel like you've been here before."  
\--------  
Michael's point of view 

"We have landed! The weather right now is 75 degrees sunny and it is 3:07 in the afternoon. Thank you for joining us on this flight to Chicago, Illinois! Enjoy your time here!" I hear over the speakers and I shudder. I turn over to Ashton and ask "did the pilot just say 75 fuckin degrees?" And he laughs at me. "In America it's Fahrenheit not Celsius, genius" he says. "Oh okay... Do you know if they do anything else different here?" I ask. His brow furrows and he thinks for awhile as we get up and start to grab our stuff to get off the plane. "They are on 12 hour time, they drive on the right side of the road, I don't know, I guess we will find out more later" he says and we head off the plane with our bags. The porte that we are at, called O'Hare is one of the largest in the world and it scares the hell out of me, there are so many people here and it's so loud that me and Ash both put headphones in. 

A nice lady named Lou who has lilac coloured hair helps us out, ushering us through the whole airport, as they call it, and even though we are grown it is nice to have an adult helping us. After the ridiculous security check me and Ash sit down and talk to Lou. "So... I don't know if you can tell but we're gay..." Ash says and she nods and smiles. "And we are running away from our parents, obviously we are from Australia" he says and she gets a sorrowed look. "You'll keep that a secret right?" I ask and she nods, putting a finger to her lips in a 'shhhh' gesture. "So uh, do you know any places where we can... rent? money is not an issue and we don't mind flatmates" Ash asks. "My friend Harry owns apartments in Geneva, if you'd like you can come with me and I'll take you and he can give you a place right away" she says and smiles. I look over to Ash with a questionable look and he considers it and nods. We collect our bags and Lou leads us to the doors. "We might have to wait for a minute, my husband and daughter might be a few" she says and we both nod. Just as she says it takes a few minutes but then a man pulls up and in the backseat is a wide smiled little that is in a bright pink pony shirt. "Mommy!" The little shouts and it makes me smile and miss my little's. We all get into the car after packing our bags in the back and Lou starts "this is Michael" she says and points at me and I smile and wave at her husband and little. "And this is Ashton" she says pointing at Ash and he does the same. "I wike your hair. Mommy you do gween next" the little says whilst pointing at my hair. Lou and her husband laugh and I get a slight blush on my cheeks. "That's Lux, and this is Tom" she says and points at her little and husband. "Ashton and Michael had to leave their homes because of relational issues between them and their parents, and so they came here" Lou says to Tom, being sensitive on the words she uses because of her little in the backseat. "You're taking them to Harry's right?" Tom asks and she nods. "Harry is a great guy he'll give you a great apartment" he says and I lean over to Ash and whisper "apartment is flat right?" and he nods. 

We share meaningless things about Australia and they share meaningless things about America and where we will be staying. "So Lux how old are you?" I ask and she brightens at the attention and puts out four fingers and says "fowr" and smiles. "What job experience do you guys have?" Tom asks. "I worked at a flower shoppe and library" Ashton says. "And I worked at a music shoppe and toy store" I add and Tom nods. "Lou said money wasn't an issue with you guys but if you need jobs I can easily hook you up" Tom offers. "We will definitely consider that, thank you guys so much for how welcoming and helpful you've been" Ashton says and I nod in agreement. "Absolutely no problem" Lou says and smiles at us. Ashton leans over to Lux and makes her giggle and pokes her and tickles her and let's her play with his hair and she loves it. "Well it looks like I've found a new babysitter" Lou announces and Ashton's face lights up in excitement. "Really?" He asks and Lou nods. "oh yeah if you'd like that" Lou says. "I would" Ashton says cooly and nods. I lean over and kiss his cheek and he blushes a sweet pink. "Love you" I whisper, so only he can hear. "Love you too" he whispers back.  
\--------  
Luke's point of view 

 

As I lay next to Calum I think about what it will be like to see my mates again, but it scares me that it's all the way on the other side of the world. I lay and think whilst Calum falls asleep on my shoulder and his arm tucked under mine, but reality sinks back in and I remember that I have to get out of his room before his family wakes up tomorrow so I set an alarm on my mobile and attempt to fall asleep, and by the warmth and comfort of my boyfriend and the soft hum of the radio I fall asleep in almost a euphoric state. 

The default alarm tone wakes me up and I roll over to be met with a sleepy Calum with adorably disheveled bed head. I gently grasp his jaw and begin to plant minuscule kisses on his forehead, nose, cheeks, chin and kiss his lips lastly and he finally wakes up with a smug look. "Tosser" Calum teases. "Prat" I remark back and he giggles. "I'd better get to my car and you better get ready so I can" I put quotation marks in the air with my fingers "pick you up for school" and he smirks but obliges and gets up to dress. He tosses me a black Nirvana shirt that neither of us know who it originally belongs to anymore, but when I wear it I know it smells like him and when he wears it he says it smells like me so it's a win-win if you ask me. I slip it on and throw the shirt I was wearing into his closet. I lay back down on his bed and lean on my elbow, and I wiggle my eyebrows as I watch him strip from his pyjamas. he throws the clothes that are strewn on the floor at me and laughs when he notices me watching him. I give him a not-so-quick kiss goodbye, which is nothing less of pathetic because I will see him in less than twenty minutes. I climb down the siding of his house and jog to my car that is parked a decent way down the street, watching as I go to make sure no one sees me. I hop in my car and sit, counting down the minutes and waiting for the text to come drive round the corner. I hum 'Just Another Brick In The Wall' by PinkFloyd as I wait. 

-ready- 

The text finally comes and I put my car in drive and pull out. Calum is walking out the door as I pull up, waving to his mum and little's as he walks away. He stares at his feet as he walks to my car but as soon as he gets close he looks up and flashes me a slight smile and I swear to god I melt a little. His dark brown eyes look up at me from under his black fringe and the red beanie he has on makes his eyes look deeper which pulls me farther. "What the fuckin hell are you wearing?" I ask as soon as he hops in the passengers seat. "Well this is a red beanie... This is a black v-neck...and these are black skinnies" he says while pointing to each item smugly. "M'not a twat or blind I can see that, but I just want to know why you must effortlessly torture me by wearing all these fucking things that you know I think you look sexy in and act like every damn thing is normal. This is not acceptable, Hood." I say in a frustrated tone as I reverse out. "I like to see you borderline angry like right now, and dressing like this apparently gets me what I want" Calum says, smirking. "The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver" plays as Calum makes me more frustrated in this seemly tiny car. "Fuck off" I say. "Oh, and the rough kisses" he adds, just as smugly. At that I abruptly pull the car over and give him exactly what he wants and as rough as I can. I lean over and yank his head closer to mine and I kiss him hard, and small moans escape his lips and that only make me kiss harder. He slips his tongue out and licks my lip piercing and I pull away. "You know how fucking much that turns me on right?" I ask, frustratedly. "Mhm" he responds with a blissful look on his face. "Go to hell" I say to him and pull out from the side of the road. He slowly snakes his hand over to my lap and teases me with that smug look he can't seem to wipe off his face. I throw my hands up in defeat and yell "damn it Calum fucking Hood! Fucking do something already or I swear to god I will fucking kill you!" and in response I get a smirk and an almost ritualistic  
before-school hand job in my car.  
\------  
Ashton's point of view

"Here we are" Tom says, as we pull up to an almost majestic looking flat complex. "Crikey" I whisper and Mikey nods in agreement. "Is that like 'oh my god' or somethin like that?" Tom asks and I nod. "Well boys, let's go see Harry" Lou says and we follow, getting our bags from the back and going with her to the flat owners office. Lux let's go of Lou's hand and comes to me and grabs mine, and it makes both me and Mikey smile, and Lou looks back and smiles too. Me, Lux and Mikey all holding hands walk behind Tom and Lou, me and Mikey occasionally swinging Lux in the air and receiving a fit of giggles. We arrive at the office and the bloke inside is nothing like I pictured at all, in fact almost opposite. He had a large dark blue floppy hat that is slightly covering chocolate brown curls and a dark blue open blazer showing some chest tattoos and an extra long bandana draped over his shoulders also dark blue, and a pressed pair of crisp trousers to match. He's rather young, maybe 20. But he seems intelligent when he begins by dramatically spinning his leather brown office chair to scan me and Mikey. "And who are these strapping two you've brought to me on this fine day, Lou, Tom and Lux?" He says, and it sort of intimidates me so I don't know if I should introduce myself or if Lou will talk. Lou picks it up a pace slower than I would have "Harry this is Ashton" she says and points at me. "This is Michael, and they need an apartment" she says, and introduces Mikey and fills him in on our situation. "I'm sure they can fill you in on any other discussion-worthy questions you might have." Lou says. "Thank you, Lou, Tom, and Lux, I think I can take it from here if you'd excuse me" he says and they get the point to usher themselves out of the room. "Will you be a nuisance in these apartments?" Harry asks abruptly as soon as they leave. "No" Mikey responds. After Mikey answers Harry's face immediately softens into a smile and smirk. "I'm totally fucking with you two, I am a nuisance myself and I own the place, be as wild as you want because you two seem like great kids." He says and Mikey smiles. "Thanks so much" I say and Harry nods. "Would you like a roommate or no roommate?" Harry ask and I look at Mikey. "We don't mind either way" Mikey supplies. "Alright then we'll start you off without a roommate, you'll be in the 203rd apartment right across the hall from the best guys you'll ever meet" Harry adds smiling and hands us three sets of keys. Mikey grabs them and has a sort of confused look on his face. "Uhh... Is that it?" Mikey asks. "Yeah, I mean you have like a paper to sign or whatever but the apartment is yours for as long as you like, rent can be discussed at a later date" Harry says and me and Mikey both are amazed. "We can sign stuff yeah no problem but... We ran away from our families to be here so if you could not tell anyone or let the authorities know?" Mikey asks. "Oh yeah no problem" Harry says like no big deal and I let out a sigh of relief. "Alright well go on ahead and tour your new apartment, welcome to Larry's Royal Oak apartments!" He says in a happy tone. "Why Larry? Your name is Harry?" I ask and he smiles wide. "My husbands name is Louis so Louis plus Harry is Larry" he supplies and me and Mikey both smile at each other as we walk out, again thanking Harry for the generosity. "Hey boys how'd it go!?" Lou shouts enthusiastically as we walk out of the office. "It went great we have flat... I mean apartment number 203" I say and Mikey holds up one of the sets of keys. "Amazing!" Lou says and Lux tries to repeat her but it comes out "awazing!" and we all laugh. "In apartment 201 is a great Irish man named Niall, you'll love him and he'll love you, and in apartment 202 is Zayn and Liam, we visit them quite often, as Lux loves their daughter and me and Tom find them great company, I'm sure you'll get on just fine" she says and we smile and Mikey says "thank you so so much for everything Lou and like you said Ash can probably babysit Lux no problem at all and you know where we are so we'll be here anytime!" She nods and waves as her, Tom and Lux walk to their car and me and Mikey head up to our new Flat, or Apartment as the Americans call it. 

Calum's point of view

I walk into my third class of today, maths, but before I even sit down the headmistress says over the speakers "we would like to take this time and ask for anyone associated with Ashton Irwin and Michael Clifford to report to the the therapists office, wether you're a friend or an acquaintance we would like to see you in the office, if you do not come we will announce your name over the speakers and you will be sought out, as we need any information a friend or acquaintance can supply, thank you for your time" and I sigh. Might as well embrace the unavoidable. I walk out of the class room and I see Luke at the other end of the hall, meeting me halfway and asking "are they gonna ask us why they're missing?" And I nod. Luke smirks. "what?" I ask. "I made a big show in front of my mum about how much I hate Mike so it would look like we got into a big fight before they left so he wouldn't tell me why he left" and I smile. "We did the same exact thing, I swear we all have the same minds" I say and laugh. As we near the therapist office we see authorities and I get nervous. "Hey stop don't freak out because they can sense that and know that you know summat" Luke says, clearly noticing my distress. "right." I say and try to relax as we both walk in, fingers brushing at our sides. "Luke Hemmings please take a seat" the Patrol man tells him. He obliges and the patrol beings to ask questions. "When was the last time you saw either or both of these boys?" He asks. Luke huffs out a sigh, acting cooly and unamused by the whole situation, and I feel pride that my boyfriend is handling this like a pro, showing them that this interrogation doesn't intimidate him like they want it to. "We got into a huge argument and I haven't seen either of those dicks since Saturday" he says. "What was the argument about and was the argument heated enough to make them run away?" The patrol says and Luke's eyes get wide. "Wait so they actually ran away?" He asks dramatically, avoiding the question. The patrol officer gets an angry look on his face "that's what I said, and you didn't say what your argument was about" he asks, prying again. "That's a personal question that I guarantee you won't help solve where they ran off to and just out of curiosity, how do you know they went together, maybe they just coincidentally left the same night, paths going two different directions?" Luke asks in again an unamused tone that impresses me. He puts emphasis on his bored act by leaning back in his chair and picking under his nails and damn I need to take acting lessons from this kid, I am way beyond impressed. "Mr. Hemmings you have been no help at all thank you very much... For your time" the patrol says, in a dry tone and ushers Luke to get up out of the seat. "Calum Hood please take a seat" the patrol says and points to the office chair that Luke just got off. "Mr. Hood when was the last time you saw either or both boys?" The patrol asks. "Same as Luke... Saturday" I say. "Now would you like to tell me about this argument?" He asks and I nod 'no' and that makes him really frustrated. "Have they ever spoke of running away with you?" He asks. "Nope" I say and begin to act more bored by pick at the loose threads on the hole in my jeans at my right knee. "Like Mr. Hemmings do you suspect the possibility of a coincidental running away on the same night?" The patrol asks and I lean back in my chair "honestly... When we had our argument Luke and I were the only that came out of it as friends, neither of them were happy with each other when we walked away, and they didn't talk to us all Sunday so neither of us know where they went no matter how hard you're going to persist by asking us questions. And again, the argument was minuscule and would not anger someone enough to fucking run away, they both aren't that sensitive enough to pack up and leave if they get mildly angry at summat or else they would have packed up and left many of times over the years" I say. I begin to drum my fingers on my lap to give that bored image and the patrol seems angry as hell. "Do you have anything else to say?" The patrol asks. "Nope" I respond, popping the P. "Have a nice day Mr. Hood." The patrol says and I get up and walk out of the office with Luke. When we get out we immediately go outside and as soon as we don't see any people we both fist bump and Luke begins "that was absolutely fucking brilliant!" He yells and I counter compliment his statement with "you too mate, I swear you are sick at the whole bored as hell look." 

"Did you see how fuckin angry he was!" Luke exclaims and we both laugh. "We totally killed that interrogation" I say and he nods. "We should probably get back in there?" I say and point to the doors. "Yeah it would look to sketchy if we skipped the rest of school" he says and I nod. I stand in front of him and get down on one knee and he hops on my back, giggling like a 12 year old little and maybe I am too. I run with him back into the school and luckily no one is in the hallway so I drop him off at his class while I go back to maths. "Love you" I say quietly. "Love you too" he whispers before going to class. I head back to maths and everyone stares at me as I walk in but I ignore it. When I sit down I look back to the seat where Mikey is suppose to be and I have bittersweet emotions about that. Happy that he is with Ash being able to live without being beat and made fun of but sad that I won't get to see them for awhile. I think about what I said to Luke about how we will go find them and it excites me but saddens me that I have to leave so many things and it frustrates me that this world is so messed up to the point of teens running away from their parents and peers because they can't love the same gender. When class ends I walk out, and my mobile beeps signalling I have a text from mum. 

-come home now please- 

It reads, and I make it out to find Luke to let him know that I'm going home because my mum texted. When I find him I say "hey love mum texted and wants me home, I'll see you later" and he smiles and nods. "Text me when you get home so I know you got home safe" he says, and that makes me smile. There's a million ways to say 'I love you' like "you should get some sleep" or "put your seatbelt on" or "text me when you get home so I know you got home safe." I walk home with my headphones in, singing along with "It's nine in the afternoon, your eyes are the size of the moon." There are patrol cars outside Ashton's house as I suspected. I send Luke a quick "I'm home babe" text and delete it as soon as it delivers, and then I place my mobile in my pocket as soon as I see my mum "Calum, love, good to see you, sorry I called you out early but the patrol needed to have a word with you about your best friend" mum says, and I take that as my cue to fake angry "mum he is not my best friend, and I already spoke with the patrol at school, goddamnit I don't know where Ashton is." I say and storm into the house, stomping my feet for extra effect' I say to myself and smirk. The patrolmen are in the dining room and I go in and plop down on a chair, trying to give the same act as I did in school. "When was the last time you saw Mr. Irwin or Mr. Clifford?" The patrol man asks. "Damn it I already went through this animal circus and answered these questions with the patrolmen at school, do I have to go through this drab again?" I ask, rolling my eyes and leaning back in my chair. "Well if you ever hope on finding your friends again I suggest you share what you know" he says. "As far as I'm concerned those blokes aren't my friends" I say and yawn...'for extra effect.' "Why would that be Mr. Hood?" He asks and I roll my eyes. "You patrol officers are all the same, bloke just asked me the same damn thing at school and you're getting the same answer. That's personal." I say and look him right in the eyes. "It was an argument that was large in a sense but it wasn't anything large enough for them to want to run away, and besides they got mad at each other too so they probably just coincidentally left the same night" I finish. "Well... I guess we haven't looked at it from that perspective." The patrol man says and paces around pondering the idea, and I hide my smirk in another yawn. "So..." I say, in a bored tone, dragging out the O.  
\-------  
Michaels point of view 

The lock clicks as I spin the key and I smile at Ashton right as I open the door. I grab his hand as we walk in and we both stare in amazement. The city, called Geneva, is classy. Small but beautiful buildings from a long time ago fill the sight in a large one-wall window that is directly across from the door. To the right is an open kitchen, every appliance jet black and the cabinets dark red cherry wood, and the countertops a black sanded look like the makers took sandpaper to it. The tiles are dark red, and of what walls in the kitchen you can see that aren't covered by cabinets are dark brown, and the bar has black stools. The dark kitchen table that is close to the window and near the kitchen fits in with the whole theme. to the left is an open living room, black leather couches, a small dark cherry wood coffee table, black cube shaped ottomans, and a giant dark brown and red coloured rug covering most of the dark cherry wood floors, and the first thing Ashton says is "fuck. it's so coordinated" and I nod. The television stand is dark brown wood with lots of cubby holes and a black metal lamp with a dark red lampshade add to the coordination and it really impresses me. The walls that aren't a window are dark red, and I follow Ashton down the large hallway connected to the living room. The hallways walls are both black and each of the four doors are painted all different colours, the first door we go into is a dark red door and it is a bedroom. Large bed with black blankets, the walls are dark red and the dressers and television stand are dark cherry wood and the closet door is black. We walk out of that room and go to the room across the hall with a brown door and it is an office, a small desk, lamp and a conjoined couch with a ottoman in the middle. The next room has a black door reminding me of Ashton's back in Australia and it is similar to the first room but a little bigger, and the layout is slightly different and the walls are splashed with different coordinating colours. "This is definitely our room." I say and Ashton laughs "hell yeah" and we drop our bags. Ashton sits on the end of the bed and I say "hey hey hey there's still two more rooms!!! One down this hallway and one connected to the kitchen!" And he giggles but obliges as I pull his hand. The door on this room is a light brown and it appears to be a bathroom. The countertops are creme coloured, the basin is a black glass, the tiles on the floor dark brown and obviously all the bathroom things like a shower, tub and toilet. Even the hand towels and the towels hanging on the hooks on the walls are all coordinated black, brown, and dark red. It truly impresses me. We walk back into the kitchen and open the dark orange door and it is another bathroom, similar to the last one. 

In the kitchen Ashton opens a closet looking door that we didn't see before and it has shelves, so it's a pantry. "Tired or hungry" Ashton asks. "Yes" I say and he laughs and pushes my shoulder. I dramatically fall on the floor and clutch the shoulder he pushed and wince and he immediately gets on his knees and starts apologising up and down "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, hey, you're okay, I'm sorry" he says while trying to pull me up and hug me. I get on my knees and push his shoulders and he falls back on the giant rug and I grab his cheeks and plant small kisses all over his face. He giggles and gasps for breathe while saying "Get off of me, you giant cupcake!" Still giggling. When I don't get off he starts to tickle my sides, at the place he knows I'm sensitive and I retreat immediately yelling "Abort! Abort! Abort!" And I get up and back away from him and he giggles. "You're a cheesy bastard sometimes, Clifford" he says to me. "And I'm fucking hungry so let's go get summat to eat." I say and he nods. "Then we can come back here and sleep and tomorrow we will go shopping and get the needs." I add and he says "brill" and we head out the door, and I lock it as we leave. "Pizza?" I ask. "Pizza" Ashton confirms. I bend down on one knee and Ashton jumps on my back and I run with him giggling in my ear. When we exit the flat complex we go left and we come to a bunch of small family owned shops and finally find a pizza place. When we arrive he hops off my back and we walk in and sit down at the table flushed to the window so we can start to know the new town we just moved into. "What can I get you to drink boys?" An older blonde lady asks, in American an accent and that will take a long time to adjust to. "Coke please for both of us" Ashton says, trying to cover his accent as best he can. "Alright! Two cokes comin right up!" The lady says and walks off. "Didn't know we were getting into this much this morning" I say and Ashton nods. He reaches his hands over the table and holds my hands while he stares out the window looking at the people passing by. I feel him gently rub his ankle against mine and I laugh to myself because he's never been afraid of being the footsies type of bloke. "Cokes!" The waitress exclaims and puts the cokes in front of us minutes later. "Thank you" I say and she nods. "Are you ready to order?" She asks and I nod. "Can we get one medium pepperoni pizza please?" I ask. "Alright! And that's it?" She asks and I nod. She walks off with the slip of paper with our order on it and I look back at Ashton, who is drinking his coke through a straw, still holding my hands and playing the footsies game under the table. "Love you sunshine" I say and he blushes a sweet pink.  
\----------  
Luke's point of view 

I drive home alone today and i suspect when I get home I will have to deal with the same circus Calum did when he got called home early. I park my car across the street from my house and I glance over at my best friends house and I sigh. I keep telling myself I'll see them both soon but it's sort of hard to believe. "Hi hon how was school?" Mum asks as soon as I walk in the door, just a little too cheerily. "Besides the pointless and waste of time interrogation...? T'was fine." I say and grab a bag of crisps from the pantry and go to my room. I hit shuffle on my iPod and put it on the dock and I throw my backpack off next to my bed, then fall on my bed in exhaustion, munching on the crisps."I miss you" by Blink-182 plays through my iPod Dock and I sing along whilst staring at my ceiling. My mobile vibrates in my pocket and a message from 'Princess' is displayed on the screen 

-film 2nite Lukey???-

The message says and I text back with 

-sounds good. I'll pick u uppp- 

And I thrown my mobile on my bed beside me and lay there for about 20 minutes. 

"It's hard to do these things alone, so, just hold on, we're going home" plays softly through my iPod Dock and I smile, thinking about Calum every time I hear this song because he bought it and slipped it into my playlist without me even knowing and he likes Drake. My mobile buzzes again and I check it quickly it it says 

-early film, let's go now- 

The message says and I laugh. 

I grab my wallet from my dresser and a black jumper and head down the stairs. "Cal needs me to drive him to the theatre for a date with some girl, I'll be back" I lie to my mum as I walk through the kitchen. "Actually love that's fine, I am going to visit your gran for a few days so you'll be home alone, I'll probably be gone when you get back, I know you'll be fine, and you can have a few friends over but not all at once" she says and I nod. "Thanks bye mum" I say and walk out the door. 'Visit your gran' means I have free reign of the house for at least four days. I happily hop in my car and drive to Calum's house. He is already outside when I pull up with a mischievous look on his face, and I already know we aren't going to see a film. I lean over to his door and swing it open and he flashed me a smile that says 'thanks.' As he hops in the car I stare at him and he looks at me, trying to hide the look on his face. "What are you looking at?" He asks, acting like nothing is happening. "I've been your boyfriend too long, I know your tricks, we aren't going to a film are we?" I ask and he breaks into a large grin. "Damn it you have. Okay, okay I give, we're going to an All Time Low concert!" He exclaims and hands me two tickets. I stare at him in amazement and I have an amazingly strong urge to kiss him but I remember that we are in front of his house. I hastily pull out and drive around the street and get to a dead end and I lean over and grab him by the back of his head and pull him close, kissing with gentleness but still showing him how much I love him. He giggles out of the kiss and beams "I'm the best boyfriend ever" and I nod. "Hordern Pavilion" he says and I back out, heading to the venue. It's quiet for awhile but Calum breaks the silence "so... What do you think Mikey and Ash are up to right now?" I think about it for awhile and shrug my shoulders. "I hope they're okay" I say and he agrees and grabs my hand and strokes it with his thumb. As we drive I have a lot of time to think which is sometimes good other times not so good, and this time it's not so good. "Distract me" I say to Calum and shake my head, doing the 'clean my thoughts' gesture and he understands. "Uh... Oh well ummm... Let's see...oh the tickets that we got are really good seats" he says. I roll my eyes at his lack of things to tell me but then I remember our lives are really fucking boring and we never do much and I'm with him all the time so he wouldn't tell me anything that I don't already know. "Me mum went to see gran so you can probably stay at mine for the next few days if you want" I add and he smiles wide. "Fuck yes go Gran! Remind me to tell your Gran that she is amazing the next time I see her!" Calum says and I laugh. "Tosser" I say and he giggles. He traces meaningless patterns on my arm and side, and relaxes me while I drive. "iPod?" He asks. "Only if you sing" I reply, and his brow furrows, he thinks about it but then obliges and clears his throat before plugging his iPod into the input jack and hitting shuffle.  
"Dammit" by Blink 182 plays through the speakers, and he takes a deep breath before singing, at first silly and making his voice crack but as the song goes on he actually sings and he sounds amazing. "A day late a buck short I'm writing the repot on losing and failing when I move I'm flailing now." I smile throughout the whole song and marvel at Calum's voice. "You're perfect" I say as the song ends. He blushes and denies with "shut up, you're the perfect one." I laugh and say "not only perfect, funny, cute, sassy and sexy, he's also endearing." And wink at him. "Stop you're making me blush" he says and tries to hide behind his bunched up flannel. "Hehe" I say in an evil voice and that only makes him laugh harder. "Fuck it" he says and drops the bunched up flannel from his face. "There's my Princess" I say and he giggles. I reach over and stroke his cheek like a gran would to a little and he swats my hand away.  
\---------  
Ashton's point of view 

We walk out of the pizza place and we can both say we are more than prepared for bed, we could probably pass out right here on the concrete sidewalk. "Baby we have to go home I need sleep" Mikey says and he pulls my hand, also half asleep. I follow him and I laugh at the image we are portraying right now, we probably look like stoned kids with holes throughout our shirts dragging each other through the streets like zombies. Whilst at the restaurant we learned that you have to tip everywhere you go, in my opinion that is bogus but we obliged, tipping the waitress three dollars. At last we reach the door and Mikey lazily hands the keys to me and I unlock the door whilst he is already unbuttoning his jeans and I laugh because before we aren't even in our room all he has left on is his briefs and he falls in bed whilst I go and brush my teeth and change into proper sleeping clothes. As soon as I fall in bed he scoots to my side and cuddles against my back. Naturally he falls asleep before I do and right before I drift of I hear him repeatedly mumble something about "be in the tribe." 

When I wake up the sun is shining barely through the red curtains and I roll over to see Mikey unpacking all of our things. "What the hell? are you... Neatly unpacking?" I ask in a surprised tone, and he smirks and says "fuck off Ash" before throwing one of my shoes at me. "I just. I'm in shock! I've never seen you do anything neatly like this before" I joke and he gets a hard expression. "New life, new rules" he says, sounding angry. I get off the bed and go behind him and put my hands around his middle and lean into his back. "I'm sorry I wasn't trying to be mean I was just playing with you Cupcake, you know that" I say into his back and I can feel him soften. "I know, I'm sorry for getting upset" he says, and huffs out a sigh. I scold myself inside for being daft and not thinking about all the teasing he had gone through at our school. I turn him around and look him in the eyes before giving him a gentle kiss. He leans into the kiss and immediately relaxes. He runs his fingers through my hair and leans closer to me till our bodies are flushed together. "I love you Mikey" I say as he pulls out of the kiss. "I love you too sunshine, but you really should do something about that morning breath..." He says and I laugh. "I thought we were having a moment" I say and he smiles at me without showing teeth. "And now we aren't so go brush your teeth and help me finish unpacking so we can go get food, I'm hungry" he says and rubs his belly. "Whatever you say" I say and grab a simple outfit out of my bag before I walk to the bathroom to brush my teeth and change. When I walk back into the room I breathe right in Mikey's face and he cringes, still thinking it smells like morning breath. I laugh and walk back to my bag and begin pulling stuff out. "This was the jumper with the note for the money and the letter in it" I say whilst holding up the jumper. "It looks good for cuddles" Mikey says and I laugh a little because that is not very punk rock of him to say. "Really a whole bag of fucking drum sticks? You don't even have your kit" Mikey says and he inspects my bag of sticks. I pull two out and drum out a pattern, alternating from my dresser, the closet door, and the wall. "Don't really need a drum kit right away" I say, and continue drumming on the resources I have around me. "Damn it I get the fucking point" he says with a lazy smile. "And I have this!" I exclaim and I hop on my cajon and drum a pattern with my hands on the face. "Yeah yeah yeah" he says, waving his hand at me in dismissal and continuing whatever he is doing. I get off my drum and go back to my bag, pulling out clothes and laying them in my dresser, laughing at myself when i see that I packed my 'ponies' shirt.  
After we are all unpacked I grab a set of keys, my wallet, some money and we head out the door. As we are locking up we hear a thick Irish accent say "hello! You're Mike and Ashton right?" I turn around and am met with a gleeful looking Irish lad that looks only about 21. "Yeah that's us, hi" Mikey says awkwardly. "Me names Niall. I live right over there" he says and points to his door. "Oh cool so we'll be seeing you a lot more often" I say and he nods. "Well I've gotta get going you two have a nice day" he says and quickly goes, still smiling wide with glee and humming a Bublé song. "D'ya think he is always like that?" Mikey ask and I shrug my shoulders. "Always" a male voice says, and I look over and a bloke with a dark quiff and dark eyes is looking at me and Mikey with a smile. "Sounds exhausting" Mikey says and I laugh at his movie reference. "Avengers yeah?" The bloke says. "Yep" Mikey affirms. "I'm Zayn, I live here with my Husband Liam and our daughter Lilliana" he says, and points back to his apartment entrance. As he nears us he sticks his hand out and we both shake it and I say "I'm Ashton and this is my boyfriend Michael" and gesture to Mikey. Mikey smiles and does a cute little wave and slightly tilts his head and I swear he is a kitten sometimes. "We sort of ran away from home so..." Mikey says awkwardly. Another bloke, I'm assuming Liam, comes out of the apartment Zayn just came out of, holding a little, who has a wide smile. "Oh this is Liam, and this is our daughter Lilliana" Zayn confirms and Liam approaches. "So you're the new kids huh?" Liam says and me and Mikey both laugh. "Yeah I guess so" I say. "I'm Michael and this is my boyfriend Ashton" Mikey tells Liam and he smiles. Lilliana waves at Mikey, most likely drawn to his bright green hair. He waves back and she giggles. "Were you just going somewhere?" Zayn asks and me and Mikey both nod. "The market because we don't have food" I inform and they both nod. "Alright we won't keep you from that" Liam says and we both nod at him. They walk back to their apartment and as we walk away Liam yells "bye neighbours" and me and Mikey both laugh. "Zayn seems like a cool guy, and Liam seems cool too he's just very... Like a Mumma" Mikey says and I consider his observation and he's not half wrong. "Left or right?" I ask and Mikey gestures his head to the right so we walk right. After walking a few minutes Mikey says "you know walking is great and all but we really need to get a better way of transportation" and i laugh. "Mikey we can't cause Lou says you have to have a licence and to have a licence you have to have certificates and or proof of address and a bunch of shit like that so that might be a few years... Sorry" I say and he sighs. "Skateboards and bikes work though" I add and he considers this. We walk for what feels like an hour and we come to a large Target and Mikey yells "finally!" And that makes me laugh. Mikey grabs a cart and we go through the food first. Mikey keeps the money in mind, knowing that we have a decent amount but not wanting to abuse it. Fruits, cereals, crisps, peanut butter, grape jam, 2 litres of various refreshments, yogurt, and noodles get thrown in the cart; practical stuff. But every once in awhile Mikey will try to slip a various assortment of things in without me noticing, and I try to put as much of it as I can back, although I leave a few items like the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and the twisty straws, and I swear we are mentally 5.

Calum's point of view

"Come on, get on" Luke says to me, and shake my head no. He fixes his new All Time Low SnapBack backwards on his head and his brow furrows. "Come on get on princess it'll give you a better view, I'm like six foot ten I can see fine, get on my shoulders and you can see better" he says and I laugh at the six for ten remark. I exhale a long, defeated sigh and I nod. Luke immediately smiles and gets on both knees in front of my chair and motions me to get on. After I sit on his shoulders I lean down to his ear and ask "am I going to get in trouble for this? And what if the people behind me can't see?" He rolls his eyes and says "fuck it" and goes back to looking at the stage and rocking out along with Alex, Jack, Rian and Zack; our idols. I look back up and try to enjoy the concert without feeling a little out of place being the only one that is three feet above everybody. They go through their whole concert set, Alex pulling off a guitar pick from the mic stand at the start of every song, until we are at the last song. I sing along to Somewhere In Neverland and when the song ends the crowd is louder then it was before, they all say goodnight and the lights come back on. I'm still sitting on Luke's shoulders and he looks up at me with his eyes tightly closed and a large smile with no teeth showing. I lean down and grab his chin and kiss him, but it doesn't feel quite right upsideown. "Spider-Man and Mary-Jane make that kiss look a whole lot easier and romantic then it actually is" Luke says, laughing out of the kiss. "Yeah so get me off your shoulders so I can give you a proper kiss" I say and he leans down on his knees by my chair and I hop off. "Thank you for that" I say and plant a sloppy kiss on his smiling lips. "And thank you for this" he says and motions toward the stage. "Mhm" I mumble and he leans into my side and laces his fingers together around my hips. We dodge ourselves out of the way as Rian throws his drum sticks and I think about how Ashton would have loved that. "Home?" I ask and he nods. "Must... Sleep" he says, eyes drooping. "Okay Lukey let's get you home" I say and put a hand on his lower back and lead him through the exiting crowd.

"You're acting like a little right now!" I say, laughing, as we cross the car park in the direction of his car. "Damn it do I have to place you in your seat and fucking buckle you up too?" I ask and he mumbles something similar to 'yes.' I open the passengers door and lift him in, and he is being a bit ridiculous, but he also held me on his shoulders for the whole concert so he might actually be a little exhausted. I buckle him and slam his door and walk over to the drivers side, and I have to fish through a smirking Luke's front pocket to get the keys. "Oh fuck off" I tell him as I pull the keys out. He does a deep giggle before leaning against the door and passing out. I roll my eyes in fondness of my boyfriend, as stupid and young as he is sometimes. Every so often I glance over at Luke and I'll catch him looking at me through his sleepy eyes. I drive to my house and I park a decent way down the street and I give Luke a quick kiss and say goodbye before hopping out of the car. I walk to my house and go inside to find only my sister and mum are awake. "How'd your date go, with what's her name?" Mum asks, and I sigh. "It went" I say, and go over and kiss both of them on the cheek and go upstairs. I wait for about three minutes and lock my door and grab a change of clothes before I climb back out my window and walk back to Luke's car. As assumed he is still passed out in the passengers side so I get back in the drivers side and drive to his house. "Lukey wake up, we gotta go inside" I say and begin to poke him. He still lays against the window, almost asleep. "Damn it Hemmings, wake up!" I yell and he blinks his eyes a few times and adjusts a small amount and goes right back to the same position. "Hey I said wake up!" I yell and he waves a dismissing hand in the air. I roll my eyes. "You give me no choice" I say, before leaning over and snaking my hands up his sides and reaching his armpits where he is most ticklish and he yelps in surprise and blushes when he is aware of what's going on. "Carry me" he moans. "Up fifteen fucking stairs? Hell no" I say and he smiles in amusement. "Well since you word it like that..." He says and yawns. I get out of my side and walk over to his and open the door and unbuckle him and he giggles a little before clasping his hands together around my neck and draping off my back, his long legs scraping against the ground till I grab under his thighs and he slams his car door and we proceed to his room. "Mums not here you don't have to act like we are starring in the mission impossible" Luke mumbles as I carry him through the house, sneaking around walls and my hands clasped in the shape of a gun. I walk to the counter in the kitchen and a note from Mumma Hemmo says 

Lucas,  
Don't make a mess  
Have fun  
Not too many people over at once  
I trust you  
I love you  
Don't do anything stupid  
I'll be back soon  
Don't do anything stupid  
Go to school  
Love you,  
Mum. x

I read it in my head and Luke's head is turned but he mumbles "what does the note say?" Into my back. "They are demanding ten billion and a plane ticket to Mexico, they want it within the hour, no cops involved and they have hostages" I say and Luke giggles. "What does it really say?" He asks, and I read it to him. "The fact that she had to repeat don't do anything stupid" I say and he jabs me below the ribcage. "Okay okay bedtime" I say and continue my playful 'sneaking around the house' act. With Luke half asleep on my back and the house all to us I smile.

"My princess is so strong" Luke mumbles into my neck as he plants little kisses on my shoulder and up my neck and behind my ear as I carry him up the stairs. I blush and continue carrying him to his room. When we reach his room i gently place him on his bed and ask "pyjamas?" And he lazily moans, and shakes his head 'no' with his eyes squinted. I pull my jeans off and fish out my mobile and shuffle my music and Chocolate by The1975 plays on a low volume and I hop in bed next to him and lay on his shoulder. "Love you Lukey" I mumble into his chest. "Love you too Cal" he mumbles back. We both fall asleep to the sound of each other's breath and Matty Healy's thick accent singing "we're dressed in black from head to toe, we got guns hidden under our petticoats and we're never gonna quit it, no, we're never gonna quit it, no."  
\-------  
Michael's point of view 

When shopping is finished we take a taxi back home because carrying all our shit home would be horrible. Ashton unloads it and puts it into it's proper place whilst I lounge about on the couch, occasionally glancing over at him. He moves swiftly like he knows exactly where everything goes and he's done this millions of times and when I try to help he yells and says I'm not putting it in the right place so I just back off. One of the things we purchased was a radio so I try and set that up whilst Ash is still unloading the food."Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty" the radio blares as I find a clear station. "I fuckin love this song leave it on!" Ashton exclaims whilst bending over, halfway in the freezer drawer. "Duh I like it too" I say and pull on the Guns N' Roses tank I'm wearing. I move over to sit at the counter on one of the bar stools. Ashton finishes the unpacking and sits next to my and huffs out a sigh while looking at his feet. I reach over and lift his chin and look him in the eyes with a smirk, not saying a word. It's quiet for awhile with only the radio softly playing in the background as I look at him in the eyes but I break the silence by saying "what's shakin bacon?" And he laughs so hard. I smile at him, loving his laugh and loving seeing him happy. We sit for awhile laughing before the door bell rings and he gets up to go answer it. I pull my knees close to my face; nervous as to who it might be. We just moved here I don't understand who it might be. "Hello boys!" Lou exclaims as she walks in, dressed rather fanciful. I breathe out a sigh of relief and smile when I see Lux trailing behind Lou. "Hewwo bowyz!" Lux copies and we all laugh. "Hello" I say and smile at Lux. She runs over to Ashton and hugs his leg and he smiles wide and it enlightens me. After hugging Ash she runs to me and hugs my leg and tries to climb up the barstool next to me. I pick her up by the armpits and place her on the chair and she plays with my green hair. "Lux... I was thinking about changing the colour of my hair, what colour should I do next?" I ask her and she gets a mischievous grin. "Pink!" She exclaims and tugs on her magenta pink shirt that has cheetah spots in black. "If you want I can do that for you, that's kind of my job; it's what I love to do. That's probably why Lux loves playing with your guys hair because she takes after her momma" Lou offers. "Yeah that'd be great... but what can we do for you?" I ask and she says "that's sort of why I'm here, could you watch her tonight cause me and Tom have a date?" She asks and me and Ash both nod. "Amazing!" She exclaims. "Overnight or will you pick her up after your date?" Ash asks. "Oh we'll pick her up after the date" Lou says, waving her hand in dismissal. "Brilliant!" Ash says and comes over to the counter where Lux still has her hands in my hair. "Did ya hear that little one? You get to hang out with us tonight!" He says and tickles her sides. "Yay!!!" She exclaims rather loudly in my ear. "I brought toys and an extra change of clothes cause she's messy and she will eat whatever so don't worry about trying to feed her kids stuff or whatever." Lou says. "Oh, yeah and Tom had this xbox in our garage and he doesn't know I took it but I brought it for you two cause it seemed like somethin you would like and use instead of Tom leaving it in our garage." She says and pulls a large box through the door. "Fu...freaking yes!" I exclaim, catching myself from swearing in front of Lux. Lou gives me a warning look that says 'don't teach my daughter a string of curses tonight.' "Well awesome thank you so much" Ash says. "No problem, and are you sure about the magenta?" She asks me. "Whatever Lux says goes" I say and Lou laughs but nods. "Alright well I'll get that and see you tonight to pick her up and maybe tomorrow for hair dying?" She asks. "Sounds good to me" I say.  
"Oh right we got these mobiles from the store where you pay for the minutes and stuff so what's your number so we can call you if we need anything or Ash burns the Flat down?" I ask. Lou nods and rattles off a number that Ashton writes on a slip of paper and slides it over to me. 'Thanks' I mouth to Ash and he blows me a kiss and winks, I laugh and Lux giggles whilst she plays with Ashton's hair, holding it up in pigtails or a ponytail or tries to braid it and giggles more at the silly looking results. "Thanks guys so much, Lux I love you and I'll pick you up tonight, be good for Ashton and Michael" Lou says, and tries to kiss Lux on the cheek. Lux ignores the kiss and says "bye mom" with a blatant tone, not even taking her eyes off Ashton's hair to look up at her mum. "Wow looks like she's already found a replacement for me. Well you three have fun, see you later!" She says and walks out the door. "Alright Luxie what do ya wanna do?" Ashton asks her. "I wike play wif yowr hair" Lux says and Ash laughs and says "okay then that's what well do" and relaxes. I watch for a while, admiring how good my boyfriend is with little's and how adorable Lux is. I hop up and search through the bag of things Lou left for Lux and there is clothes, small ponies, little dolls, but then I find a giant bag that has tons of girly hair things. "Oh fuck yes" I whisper and begin to pull the bag out. "Hey Ash can you move maybe to the couch so Lux doesn't have to stand?" I ask. "Oh yeah. C'mon Lux" Ash says and turns around and picks Lux up and walks her to the couch, places her down and he sits on the floor in front of her seat on the couch and she continues playing with his hair. I open the package and organise it on the tray that it came with and I carry it over to Lux. When she sees it she inhales sharply in surprise. "You can use this stuff in his hair" I tell her and she gets a mischievous look. Ashton looks up from his spot on the floor and he laughs hysterically when he sees all the glittery clips and bow berets. "Fuck you" Ashton mouths to me and I laugh. Lux grabs Ashton's head and violently turns it so he is looking forward and begins bundling up bunches of his curly hair and using the clips and bows and hair-ties and brushing sections with a sparky brush. I take a few pictures and send them to Lou's mobile and walk over to the box that has the Xbox in it. Controllers, cords, games and even some films fill the box surrounding the Xbox that is in the middle of it all. "Wow Ash, This is great, there's some really good games and all the cords are here and controllers are here and there's even films" I tell him whilst I dig through the box. "Great great" he says. I bring the box over to the living room and place it near the flat screen television and dig through the box till I find the AV cords to connect the Xbox to the television. I can feel Ashton watching me as I connect all the cords and I occasionally glance at him from behind the television and laugh every time because lux has her tongue slightly sticking out as she focuses on doing Ashton's hair intently and Ashton has this miserable but gleeful look on his face. After the Xbox is hooked up I try it out, playing the game that was left in the Xbox. The game loads and Ashton and I laugh hysterically when the game menu comes up. "Why would Tom have a Just Dance game?" Ash laughs between words, still clutching his sides. Lux gets an angry look in her eyes as he won't stop moving from laughing. Lux growls loudly trying to express her anger with Ashton moving from laughing and then she slaps him. Ashton stops laughing out of surprise that Lux just slapped him on the side of the head. "Did she just?" Ashton asks me and I try not to laugh. "Aye! You're a little Sheila you can't go 'round hittin people! What would your mum say if she saw you hit?" Ashton scolds, also trying not to laugh because it's cute when little's do that sort of thing but it's bad to laugh because that teaches them it's okay. "Momma says no hit. Sowee" Lux says and sits down and stares at her hands. "Fuckin girl is so cute she gets upset and all you wanna do is throw glitter all over her and give her tons of gifts." Ashton whispers to me and I smile. "Hey Lux I'm sorry I yelled at you but you can't hit okay? I understand that you were mad but you can't hit" Ash says as he raises her chin to look her in the eyes. I laugh at the sight, Ashton with a bunch of clips and bows in his hair trying to be serious with Lux. "Not helping cupcake" Ash says to me and glares at me, but with a amused fondness in his eyes. He looks back at Lux and nods his head and she nods too. "I forgive you just try not to hit anymore" he says and kisses her on the forehead. He leans close to her ear and whispers something and she immediately perks up and gets a mischievous look in her eyes before fixing her gaze on me. "Miiiikeeeeyyy" Lux says, dragging out the vowels. "Ash what did you just whisper to her?!" I ask while backing away slowly as she approaches me with a handful of clips and berets and an intimidating grin. "Mikey... Ashy says you wike cwips in yowr hair." She says and inches closer to me. Ashton slowly gets up and walks slowly toward me next to Lux.  
"It's not punk rock... It's not punk rock... It's not punk rock" I whisper and repeat like a mantra. I shake my head 'no' and then my back hits the wall next to the television. Lux and Ashton exchange evil glances before charging in my direction and Ashton's sweet laugh rings through the house as he tickles all my sensitive spots and Lux's adorable giggle rings besides Ashton's as she puts clips of all kinds and colours in my green hair. I try to hate this moment but I can't, despite my current state of being held down and tickled and having girly things put in my hair I can't hate it because the warmness of Ashton's laugh and the gleeful look on Lux's face makes everything seem alright.  
\--------  
Luke's point of view 

"You're not skipping school right?" Mum asks me. "Cal stop it's my mum!" I whisper as I pull the mobile away from my mouth. Calum continues teasing me by palming me though my jeans and I can hear my mum almost yelling through the mobile. "Lucas I said yore not skipping school because I'm gone right?" She says louder. "No mum I'm not. I'm in the car driving to school" I say and try to keep my voice normal. "Damn it Cal!" I yell as I pull the mobile away from my mouth again and try to smack his hand away from my crotch. "See mum Cal is in the car with me, tell her that were on our way to school!" I say and shove the mobile in Calum's face. "Yeah Mumma Hemmo we're on our way, and Luke is having a hard time talking on the mobile and driving so maybe we can call you back later" he says to her with a smirk. "Oh yes sorry love that's not safe, don't mess with your mobile whilst driving, I'll talk to you later, love you" she says and hangs up before I can say anything. Calum locks my mobile and puts it in the cup holder before leaning on his palm and looking out the window with an amused smirk pulling at his lips. "Fuck you Calum, you can't just start summat and not finish it!" I say and motion to the bulge in my jeans. "Yes I can" he says in a singsong voice and continues looking out the window with a smug look. "I'm not sure if you're aware but this is actually physically painful, and I know how much you hate seeing me in pain..." I say nonchalantly. At that he turns his head and glares at me in defeat before going back to palming me and finishing what he started. 

"You're bossy when I get you going" Calum teases as we walk down the hall to our classes. "And you are a real fucking tease" I add and he smirks. I roll my eyes before motioning my head to my classroom door and he frowns. "Love you" I whisper and he whispers it back. I hug him, swiftly planting a few small kisses between his shoulder and neck and going into class. 

"Settle in Hemmings and we will get started" the teacher says and I take a seat at the back of the class and fish out my glasses from my backpack. As I sit through class little balls of paper fly and hit me and people whisper words like "faggot" and "dork" when they throw the paper my way. I shrink down in my chair and try to just make it through the class and through the day.

The bell rings signalling my last class of the day is over and I am so thankful. Each class had some form of teasing, wether it was paper being thrown at me or being shoulder checked on the way to my seat and even paste thrown at me in art class. People whisper things like "yeah he was kissing him all over in the hall" and I roll my eyes because leave it up to the grade 11 kids to overreact to three or four small kisses on Calum's shoulder to "all over." I meet Calum by my car and he looks just as exhausted. He sees me and his eyes fill with sorrow and the beautiful shade of brown I can't get enough of drains out of his eyes as he looks at me, his eyebrows scrunch and his arms fly open to hug me. We play a game of 'who had it worse in what class' as we go home, him sharing that he had a similar treatment in art but with glitter and feathers that were aimed for his eyes. "What the hell is wrong with people?" I choke out, trying to hold back tears. "I don't know Luke but I'm sorry" Cal says and leans over on my side and holds me in a side hug with his hands clasped together at my left hip. Who would have thought a couple kisses would have ended up in this mess. "I understand that maybe people don't like who we are but that doesn't entitle them to abuse us, you can have an opinion but you shouldn't express your opinion in violence. And baby think about it, Mikey got that every single day, from his parents too, the sole people who are suppose to love who you are and love you, not treat you the exact same way your classmates treat you" I say, breaking into tears when I talk about Mikey. "I know, I know violence isn't the answer for anything and it's quite barbaric to use violence on every person that blinked at you wrong or is gay or isn't wearing a shirt you like, and people don't get it that it's really not the answer, and Mikey oh god, Mikey is the single strongest bloke I've ever seen in my entire life, he can take his parents, take peers, and still get out of bed every day and do his best to make it through the day with the strength that didn't get beat out of him and he'd put a smile on his face because he didn't want to let everyone down but in reality we were letting him down because we didn't notice for so long and one day I asked him, I said "Mikey, how do you have the motivation to pull yourself out of bed and come here and get through the day?" And do you know what he said? He said "you, me, and Ashton." He took all of that, every day for us... It blows my mind, but I'm willing to take it for you." Calum says to me. "He said that?" I ask and he nods. "I'd take it for you too" I add and he softens, the colour returning to his eyes. "Let's just go to your house and put on a film and have a cuddle on the couch." Calum says and I nod and maybe even smile a bit.  
\------  
Ashton's point of view 

"Thank you guys so much for watching my lil' girl" Lou says as she walks through the door, still in the sparkly silver dress she wore to her date with Tom. "No problem, anytime, she had so much fun, I'm sure when she wakes up she'll tell you all about it" I say to Lou and she laughs. "Oh I saw quite a few pictures of your festivities, I have no doubt she had a lot of fun" she says and smirks, reminding me of Lux's mischievous grin. I laugh and give a passed out Lux to Lou. "Goodnight boys!" Lou says as she grabs the bag of Lux's things and walks out the door. "Well that went well" Mikey states and I nod. A silence fills the air as we both just stare at each other from across the room. He stands next to the couch and I abruptly take him by surprise by charging full speed at him over the side of the couch and grab his chin and place a bunch of wet sloppy kisses all over his face and say "You" Kiss "Are" Kiss "So" Kiss "Good" Kiss "With" Kiss "Little's" Kiss "And" Kiss "It's" Kiss "So" Kiss "Fucking adorable" Kiss. Mikey blushes so hard and that makes me kiss him even more. "I get the point but I can't fucking breath!" Mikey says and laughs loudly. "Okay sorry" I say and get off of him. "You're an instigator" he says and I wink at him. Mikey yawns and it makes me yawn too and as I yawn he sticks his finger in my mouth and pokes my tongue and I giggle. "Bed?" I ask. "Bed" Mikey confirms with a nod. I reach my hand out and he grabs it and we walk to our room. 

"They make pyjamas for a reason" I state as Mikey strips to his briefs and jumps in bed. "What's the fun in spooning with pyjamas on?" He teases and wiggles his eyebrows at me. "You're just like fucking Luke sometimes I swear to god" I say and he giggles but then gets quiet. I walk over to the bed and rest my chin on his shoulder and say "hey... It's okay. They're okay, they have each other they'll be okay" I repeat to him. "But what if they're not?" He says, muffled by the blanket that is pulled up to his face. "How bout this, how bout we call them tomorrow day sometime?" I suggest. He raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "I memorised both their numbers, we can call them" I say and he nods. "Okay." He says and I nod and give him a slight smile. I walk over to my side of the bed and click the light off and immediately feel Mikey's body heat as he scoots over to my side and cuddles against me. 

I wake up with a patch of green tickling my face and small giggles. "What do you want now you tosser?" I mumble, still half asleep. "Love you too" Mikey says sarcastically and starts to slide out of bed, taking the covers with. "Come back here with those bloody fucking covers and your insane body heat!" I yell as he walks out of our room. "No you come here" he mumbles back. "Fucking" I yell and proceeds to climb out of bed and follow him. "What. The. Hell." I say as I walk out of our room. "Come have a cuddle with me" Mikey says and taps the couch beside him. "What time is it?" I ask. "Seven in the morning here, about ten at night back in Australia" he says and I understand now, he wants to call Luke and Calum. "Oh okay Cupcake" I say and grab the mobile off my dresser before coming back to the living room and sitting next to Mikey. I dial Calum's number and pray that he is not at home or around anybody that is looking for us. A few rings and a sleepy voiced Calum picks up with a muffled "hello?" And I smile so hard, it is so good to hear his voice. "It's us" I say, hoping that he understands. "Fuck. Oh my god. Luke wake up they're on the mobile" Calum says and I hear rustling before a sleepy voiced Luke says "wha?" And I laugh. I put them on speaker and set the mobile on Mikey's lap. "Fuck that was Ashton's laugh" Luke states and I hear more rustling and then clearer he says "fucking finally. I miss you guys so much" I smile and picture the last time I saw them. "We miss you both too so damn much." I say and Mikey nods. "Have the patrol been okay with you guys?" I ask, scared of the answer. "Just a lot of questions but not too bad no" Calum says and I sigh in relief. "Umm... Did we wake you guys up?" Mikey asks awkwardly. "Yeah we were having a cuddle on the couch and we fell asleep" Luke quickly replies. "Oh yeah is that all you were doing?" Mikey asks smugly. "Oh my fuck Michael yes that's all we were doing" Luke says and I can picture him rolling his eyes. 

"Ow!" Calum yells and a loud crash happens on the other line. "The hell?" I ask. I hear rustling and Luke says "sorry princess" and me and Mikey both laugh. "What?! He fell off the couch!" Luke yells. "I hope that's a pet name because if not then some pretty kinky stuff his happening over there" Mikey says and we all laugh, and I can tell both boys cheeks are flushed red by the way they both yell at the same time "No!" Me and Mikey laugh hysterically. "It's so good to not hear an American accent" Mikey groans and the boys both laugh. "That's got to suck dick" Calum says and Mikey groans again. "So what happened then?" Luke asks. "Well the porte was fine, the flight was fucking long and the security at O'Hare airport was dramatically horrible, yeah they call it an airport and we live in Illinois." I say. "Chicago is in Illinois right?" Calum asks. "Yeah, but anyways we met a lady called Lou and she and her husband Tom and her Little called Lux helped us by taking us to this really nice flat complex, or apartment complex and we met this bloke named Harry, and he and his husband Louis own the apartments so they let us rent one and it's really nice, and we have a few neighbours, Niall a young Irishmen a few years older then us and two blokes Zayn and Liam and their little named Lilliana, they seem nice and the town is called Geneva... is a nice place so it's good here but we miss you both so much." I finish and Mikey nods at me, approving of what I said and agreeing. "Sounds great. We miss you too" Luke says.

"What have you been up to?" Mikey asks them. "Obviously school and stuff but yesterday we went to a... an All Time Low concert" Calum says smugly, "motherfuckers! God damn it you both know full well Alex Is my fucking idol!" Mikey yells and they both laugh. "Fuckin sick mate" Luke says in a marvelling tone. "I sat on Lukey's shoulders the whole time" Calum says, in a cheeky tone and I smile at that. "You two are fuckin adorable" I say and giggle. They both laugh a nervous laugh and then it gets quiet.

"Ashton is fucking adorable with little's, Lou had us babysit her little, Lux, and he let her put clips and bows in his hair almost all night" Mikey says, smirking, but still looking at me with an admiring look. "Aw" Calum says and me and Mikey and even Luke laughs.  
"Besides an All Time Low concert how has it been going by you guys?" Mikey asks.

We can both hear them whispering but we can't hear what they're saying and it scared the shit out of Mikey because he pulls his knees up to his face and starts slowly rocking back and forth "guys...?" I say. "Oh shit sorry. Well it's been fine I guess, Luke's mum went to go visit his gran so we fell asleep on his couch..." Calum says in an unsteady voice. "Damn it you're avoiding the question. How has school been is what I was asking." Mikey says, muffled by his face in his knees. Calum huffs out a sigh and says "fine" but we all know that's a lie. "Bullshit" Mikey says. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. School has been frustrating because of all the interrogations about your whereabouts and I guess someone saw Luke kiss my neck or shoulder or whatever in the hallway and all the grade 11 kids and really the whole school made a huge deal about it like Luke was proper snogging me in the hallway. I really don't care about the shit that they do to me but it sucks cause me and Luke don't have any classes together and I just... I want to protect him like I'm suppose to..." Calum says, and I get a major tingle throughout my body because me and Mikey were in that exact situation. "Please stop" I can hear Luke say and I realise that they are probably both crying. "Listen... I can take some paste in my hair and people bumping my shoulder and tripping me if it lets me be who I am, fuck, yeah, It's unfortunate but I don't care that much." Luke says. "Luke listen, that's exactly where I was and you have to stay there, keep that frame of mind and just... Whenever you get pushed into a locker think of Calum, whenever you get tripped think of me and Ash, think of people that you love and then they'll start to make you stronger cause you have a reason to live and it's Cal, and us, and your little's, focus on the good in your life, after this punch then I get to go home and eat, damn it that sounds fucking messed up as hell but it keeps you in the positive mind frame and you can make it through the day, hardly but mate, you got this." Mikey says, and I nod throughout his speech, thinking back to all the times he's done that and he's definitely the strongest of all of us. I reach over and grab his hands and hold them for awhile, occasionally kissing his knuckles. "Thank you Mike. I'll do that" Luke says. 

It gets quiet and I say "hi Calum" and everyone laughs. Calum laughs through tears and says "hi Ashton" and I smile. Calum and Luke both yawn at the same time and come out of the yawn giggling like 14 year olds and Mikey rolls his eyes in fondness. "It's late and you guys have to go to school, whilst mums gone no skipping school, you know the rules" I say and both boys laugh hysterically "Mumma Hemmo had to write 'don't do anything stupid' twice on the note" Calum says and giggles and me and Mikey both laugh, knowing about the note Mumma Hemmo always writes to Luke when she leaves. Again we hear a loud thud and Luke laughing and Calum yelling "ow!" And after a lot of rustling Calum mumbles "that time he pushed me on purpose" and Luke does a deep evil laugh. The doorbell rings, Mikey curls up with his knees drawn to his face again and I hand him the mobile and I go check who it is.

"Hello!" Lou and Lux say at the same time in a very enthusiastic tone. "Oh hello" I say and smile. "We are here to turn a certain teenage boy magenta" Lou says and Lux evilly giggles. They come inside and Mikey has placed the mobile on the counter and set up a barstool by the kitchen basin. "Hi Lou, hi Lux" Mikey greets and Lux runs up to him and hugs his leg. I pick up the mobile and say "hey you two should probably go back to bed, and we gotta go anyways." Luke yawns, confirming my statement "okay. Love you and miss you tons" Calum says. "Love you too and miss you just as much, say bye to Mikey" I say and hold the mobile to Mikey "bye Mikey love you!" They both yell and it makes me smile. Mikey says goodbye and hands me back the mobile. "Goodnight blokes" I say and hang up. "Goodnight?" Lou asks and looks out the window, confused because it is morning. "Our mates in Australia" I offer and she nods. "Miss them?" Lou asks, innocently. "Like sh... Like crazy" Mikey says and corrects himself mid sentence, glancing at Lux to see if she caught that near slip but she is off in her own world with ponies on our living room floor. "They're sort of in the same situation as us" I say, being sensitive of what I talk about in front of Lux. "Oh. Are they considering relocating as well?" She asks and I shrug my shoulders. "I mean I'm sure they want to leave too but I don't think they're in the... position to." I say. "Oh I understand... Well let's get to this hair!" She exclaims. Mikey hops up on the barstool and she hands him a container of colour powder to mix. While she takes out a white iPhone and Dock from a large bag and turns on a playlist "for doing hair" she states and I nod. Me and Lux watch as Lou does Mikey's hair, I occasionally poke her and she giggles but she is infatuatedly adoring the magenta pink she picked out and she is too focused half the time to see all the silly faces I am doing.  
\-------  
Luke's point of view

"Luuuukeyyy" Calum says as he gently shakes my shoulders. "I'm up, I'm up" I say and yawn. "Oh goodie" Calum says and a sweet grin pulls on his lips. "Fucking enthusiastic morning people" I groan and Calum giggles. "How...The fuck do you have enough energy or motivation to do that giggle this early and still manage to make me smile?" I ask through an endearing smile. "Because I love you" he says and kisses me. We lay on the couch for awhile, giggling in and out of kisses. "Your goddamn lips make me want to skip school" I mumble and he smiles and cuddles into my shoulder, pulling his knees up to my chest and clasping his hands around the back of my head. "Your hair, your smile, your fucking lip piercing, your wide ass shoulders, and fuck... your legs" Calum says, touching each as he says them. Just then my mobile rings with Jimmy Eat World singing "everything will just be just fine, everything, everything, will be alright, alright" "fuckkk" I groan and fish it out of my back pocket. "We got to get to yours so you can make the impression that you slept at yours last night" I say and he groans. "Fucking. Okay one more kiss?" He asks cheekily and I smile. "One more princess" I say and he wastes no time and grabs my face and kisses me. When I slip a hand through his hair and one down his lower back he moans in my lips and the endorphins kick in. 

"They totally bought it, I wish school was that easy" Calum says as he slides into the passengers seat. I nod and begin pulling out of his house in aim for our school. "Your lips are so fucking red I am so glad I'm not white because they definitely would have noticed" he laughs and opens my mirror for me to look, and in fact, my lips and a small portion surrounding them are red. "Bastard" I say and he giggles. Calum hums Holiday by Green Day and maybe it's the way the early sun shines off his tanned skin or the way his amethyst coloured tank top shows off his biceps and compliments his dark hair that is lazily styled over his forehead, maybe that's why I love him but I know it's much more than that. It's his giggle, his kind heart and how deep he loves, despite the flaws, fears, faults, and insecurities he loves with all his heart and it scares me to think about a life without him. It wouldn't even qualify as a life, it would be a miserable existence and a waste of time. "Fuck where the hell did I find you and how did I end up with someone so fucking amazing inside and out?" I ask, marvelling at him. He smiles before grabbing my hand and keeping it simple by shrugging his shoulders, not trying to provide an answer to my rhetorical question. 

"We can do this" Calum says as we pull up to the school. I nod and jump out of the car and we head inside the school. I think about Mikey's speech he gave me over the mobile call last night. "If we're out at school do you think our parents will find out eventually?" I ask. "Fuck you totally reminded me!" He exclaims. "We could just run off with our college funds" he laughs and I laugh out of nervousness, not understanding how that question reminded him of that but I just go with it. "Got about 5,000" I add. "I think I got 3,000 and I have money in the lock box in my room" he says and we both totally forgot about that. "S...so we leave soon?" I ask. "We could pull out the money tonight and leave on a flight early like Mike and Ash did" he says and looks at me, seeking approval. "They just left like three days ago, do you think it's too soon?" I ask. He considers this and nods. "You're actually right, let's wait a few more days, maybe have a day or so with our little's and then we can go" he says and I smile. "I have been your boyfriend way too long, I knew you were gonna say that, and let's not tell Mike and Ash, we can surprise them." I say. He thinks about it and smiles and asks "they said Louis and Harry's apartments in like Geneva right? Maybe we can look 'em up on the mobile and see if we can set up some surprise or summat?" I nod and add "sounds good" and he smiles and says "let's go destroy" with an evil smile. 

We part ways at our first classes, being careful of what we do in front of everyone that is clearly watching and waiting for something to happen that isn't going to happen. "Do we look like a fuckin film to you lot? Mind your damn business" Calum says angrily and I put a hand on his shoulder to let him know that I'm okay and then he walks off. I roll my eyes at everyone who is standing around trying to be subtle or act like they're doing whatever when they're just here because they heard about me kissing Cal's neck yesterday and they want proof or they want to be the centre of attention because they saw firsthand 'those two gay boys.'  
I sit down in class and a few more people arrive. as class starts I don't quite pay attention, I focus on picking at the loose thread around my knees because what's the point of paying attention in class when I'm leaving in a few days anyways? 

-nt evn payin attentn 2 lessn bc we leavin bby(:


	2. Chapter 2

'Princess' texts and I smirk, loving that we think so alike.   
-same-  
Is all I message back and play with my lip ring with my tongue

 

Michael's point of view  
"Fuckin sick" I whisper as I look at my hair in the small hall mirror. I avoid the bathroom mirror at all costs because it shows way more than my face. "What would magenta frosting taste like?" I hear Ashton ask Lou and I roll my eyes. "I think... Maybe like raspberries" Lou says and i laugh. I come out from the hall and into the kitchen and Ashton smiles widely and proudly states "you are now my magenta cupcake" and I smile. "You see..." He begins, looking at Lou "Mikey is a cupcake, and every time he dyes his hair his frosting changes flavours, the last was green so his frosting flavour was grass" and I blush, embarrassed whenever he goes over this with people, he can't just explain that he likes to call me cupcake, no, that would be too basic, he has to give a full explanation. "You guys are fuckin adorable" Lou whispers. "You and those damn pink cheeks always blushing at every endearing thing that escapes his mouth" she says, pointing at me "and you with those eyes that light up at every thing he says, hanging on to every word, always at the edge of your seat" she says, pointing at Ashton. Ashton leans over and says quietly "that's not very punk rock of you" and I burst out laughing. He laughs too and Lou just rolls her eyes before packing up all her things and saying "you guys are being too cute, I'm out" and she tells Lux to pick up her toys.   
After both of their things are collected and packed in bags Lou gives us both hugs and kisses on the cheek before heading out the door with Lux, but before Lux crosses through the door she runs back and hugs both me and Ashton, making us both smile and she runs back to an emotional Lou who is clearly touched by Lux's cuteness. The door shuts behind them and again me and Ash are left in silence. "Hi sunshine" I say cheekily with a sweet smile. "Hello cupcake" he returns and I smile.  -------- Ashton's point of view   
Mikey's mobile beeps in the pocket of his one-legged striped jeans that make him look incredibly tall. "S' from Tom and it says he has an opening where we can both get waiter jobs at some restaurant, or a game store. Game store gig would be pretty sick but I'd rather work in a place where we both sort of know what we are doing so d'ya wanna go for the waiter one?" He supplies and I smile at the thoughtfulness of him not wanting to stick me in a place I know almost nothing about. "Okay let's do it.. When?" I ask. "Next week." He says and I nod. "Well that'll be cool" I say blatantly and he laughs. "What do we do now?" I ask after a long silence. "Have a cuddle and video games?" He asks. "Sounds good to me" I say and walk go the couch and plop down. I rest my head on the arm rest and stretch my legs across the whole couch and my feet slightly hang over the edge. Mikey walks over to the television and turns on the Xbox and messes with it for while. After it's on and he puts a random game in he grabs two remotes and shuffles over to the couch before plopping on top of me and erupts in a fit of laughter. One of his legs hangs off the couch and the other is laced in between my legs and his arms are hung loosely around my neck and his newly coloured magenta hair is tickling my neck and I giggle. Once he's realised what he's doing he shakes his head like crazy and it makes me laugh harder before trying to push him off without hurting him. After a few kisses and a bit more tickling we finally play the game and Mikey has to guide me though the whole thing because I'm almost clueless when it comes to this stuff. "What the fuck Ash! you are complicating it so much... Literally just point the gun and shoot, s'not that hard" he exclaims. ------- Michael's point of view  
 "Not everyone is as incredibly talented at this nerd stuff as you are" Ashton says to me and I laugh a little at the praise that is hardly believable. "Incredibly talented is an overstatement" I say and he rolls his eyes in endearment at me. "Always so self deprecating" he says sadly and reaches over and leans into my chest. "You're very pretty and smart and funny and you are so good to me, why can't you be good to yourself?" He asks, grabbing around my waist. "Because people give the love they want back and don't think they deserve the love from the people they love more than themselves" I say and he looks up at me. "You know it's true Ash because why else would you have cut? You loved so many people and almost none of them loved you back" I say and raise my hand to my forehead, regretting bringing that up. "S...speaking of cutting... This will probably be the weirdest question I'll ever ask you but I was wondering if you'd mind if I cut just one more time, and let me explain" he says. It hurts that he's asking such a messed up question but I wait till he's done. "So I have four cuts all in a line right here" he says and pulls his bracelets back to show me a spot on the side of his wrist where as he said there are four lines next to each other "and I wanted to put one cut across them for a tally mark, sort of like a tattoo but a scar tattoo" he finishes and I think about it. The tally mark has always been his thing, and he could have just not asked me and done it on his own so it means a lot that he asked. "It has nothing to do with anything that has hurt you, you just wanna make it into a tally mark yeah?" I ask and he confirms it by saying "absolutely nothing to do with anybody or anything hurting me, just want to turn it into a tally mark." I nod and look at him in the eyes, searching for any piece of pain or any trace of hopelessness that I have seen for a vey long time. "Fuck it. Fine" I say and he nods and grabs my hands and holds them for awhile, occasionally kissing my knuckles. "I'll do it later, you're too fucking captivating to get up and do anything else" he says and I smile. "So endearing" I whisper and he giggles. "You said I was pretty, why can't I have a punk rock word like hardcore or a manly word like handsome?" I ask and he laughs. "Well you are handsome and sometimes hardcore but you're pretty, Like not girly, Just pretty. Like pretty face, pretty hair, pretty eyes, pretty lips" he says and I blush but hide it by shoving my face in his chest. "Find summat down there?" He asks and I giggle in his armpit. "Tosser" he remarks at my giggles. "Oh shut up" I say, muffled by his armpit. I throw my hand in the air and aim to hit him in the stomach but end up dropping my fist right on his crotch and he cries out in pain but it comes out mixed with laughter because he is laughing hysterically. "You dick!" He yells through laughs and I laugh too.  --------- Calum's point of view   
-what'd ya do with ya little's  tday?-  
'Lukey' texts and I rub my face in stress before texting back   
-ice cream treat and they wanted to go fuckin rollerskating, it was horrible. Kept fallin on me ass but they had fun so that's all that matters. You?-   
And I hit send and continue packing my things. My hands shake in nervousness even though we aren't leaving for a few days. His reply comes back quickly and a second message comes in shortly after  
-had a nice day I guess??? my little's just wntd 2 play with my guitar and jump all ovr my bed and we ended up passed out on the lounge floor wtchn toy story-   
And the other message has an American mobile number and it says   
-the flat wher mike n' ash stayin at, call dems mby and see if we can come dere plz?-   
I send a quick okay message back before using my iPod to call through a calling app. "Hello, Larry's Royal Oak apartments, Louis speaking" a chipper American bloke says. "Hello, my names Calum, I have two Aussie friends at your apartments, Michael and Ashton, so me and another friend wanted to come and surprise them and stay at your apartments for awhile, and I was callin to ask if that was all cool" I say and the bloke on the other line laughs and says to someone "the Aussies are taking over, two more wanna come here Haz, is that alright with you?" And a male voice responds but I don't hear exactly what the he says. "Harry says that's fine, when will we be expecting you?"  He asks. "Three days" I reply. "Thanks see you then" the bloke says and I sigh in relief and hang up. I grab my mobile and call Luke and he picks up on the second ring. "Hi Lukey everything's good they said were okay to come" I blurt out in excitement. "Well good, I'm excited." He says and I can see the smile on his face in my mind. "Me too. M' gonna finish packin I'll catch ya laters Lukey" I say and he laughs "okay princess love you" he says and I smile fondly "love you too." And hang up. I go around my room searching for the belongings I don't want to leave behind. Photos, guitar picks, a few pairs of shoes, several pairs of basic black skinnies, a bunch of my favourite shirts, and a few snapbacks and beanies. I leave three jeans on my floor in front of my closet and put shirts on them, three outfits for the last three days so I'm not living out of this backpack. I neatly roll up all the clothes as I place them in my backpack and laugh to myself, picturing Luke just shoving all his clothes in a backpack, not even folding them so he can get a lot more in there. After all the clothes I want to bring are packed I scan my room for anything that I should bring. I see the dart gun in my windowsill, and it brings back memories. I walk over to my window and pull it open and look at Ashton's window. I smile at all the times we shot darts at each other through the window and all the nights we've snuck through each other's windows after coming back late from causing trouble around town. For the fun of it, I shoot one dart over and I sit and watch and picture like a slide show of all the times Ashton has ever come and retrieved the darts, always a giant smile on his face. After reminiscing those dart gun window memories I go back and check through my room again, forgetting under my bed the first time. I get down on my knees and reach under my bed and swipe my arms for only a few things to slide out, including my lock box, and I sigh in relief that I checked under the bed because we really needed this money. I open the lock box and quickly put the saved up  money in my wallet and toss it in my backpack. I go back to the lock box and a few photos of me and Luke are in it, photos that I wouldn't hang on my wall for various reasons. I smile and decide to put these in the stack of photographs I'm already bringing. After I empty the lock box I slide it back under my bed and look at the other things that came out from under the bed, one of Ashton's bandanas, a few rubber bracelets, crisp bags that are definitely Michael's and a pair of briefs. I toss the crisps bag into the bin and throw the briefs in the laundry hamper. As soon as I realise I'm done I sigh in relief and fall onto my bed, "here comes the weekend, hanging out with my best friend" plays softly through my radio and before I know it I'm drifting to sleep minutes later.   
When I wake up in the morning I decide that I want to go out with a bang, and text Luke after I get a really good idea.   
-skipping today, we're gonna have some fun, pick me up-   
I message him and he reads it immediately like the good boyfriend he is and texts back seconds later with  
-okay be there soon princess-   
and It makes me smile. I throw my phone on my bed and get on one of the sets of clothes I have folded in front of my closet. I slip into black skinnies, a maroon tank top and black vans, grabbing my phone, wallet, ray-bans and a black beanie as I walk out the door, slipping past my family quickly and getting outside before anyone sees me. I sit on the pavement of my driveway in front of the garage and wait for my boyfriend, the live version of Lithium by Nirvana playing softly from my phone.   
"Hi" Luke greets as he opens my door, what a fuckin gentlemen. "You look hot today" I say and he blushes. He steals the beanie off my head and swaps it out with his black SnapBack and now he looks less hot but more cute. The black tank top he wears has the Blink-182 logo on it, his black skinnies look similar to mine, and his all black converse fitting what he's wearing all together and I wonder how did I even get someone so attractive. "Where are we going?" He asks and puts his hand over the centre console to hold my hand. "Arcade" I say and grab his hand and he smiles wide. "Definitely worth skipping school" he says and I nod. "Well I wanted to go out with a bang you know so do summat like really fuckin fun as like the last memory and all" I say and he nods. He drives to the local arcade, holding my hand the whole time and using his thumb to rub small patters on my hand.   
When we get there and go inside it is almost empty. I laugh at the fact that the only people there are parents with their little's that aren't old enough to go to school yet. "50 coins please" I say to the lady at the main counter. "Twenty five dollars" she says and I pull out the money and hand it over. She gives me the coins and I split them evenly and Luke smiles and kisses my cheek. "Thank you princess" he says and grabs my hand as we walk through the arcade, deciding what we are doing first. "Ski ball?" He asks and points to the ski ball lanes. "Fuck yeah" I say and follow him over to the lanes. He inserts three coins and the brown ski balls come out of the shoot and he takes two and hands me two. "You first" I say and he nods. The first one he slides up the lane goes into the 1000 points, the lowest score and he grimaces before stepping back and letting me go. I score the 2000 points and let him go again. He gets the 2000 and I give him a high five but he brushes it off. I slide my second ball in and it gets in the 4000 and Luke glares at me. I laugh and he steps up to the lane again. He puts the ball in my face and says "kiss it." I raise an eyebrow and say "that's nasty do you know how many hands touch that" and he rolls his eyes. "Okay Michael" he mocks, referring to Michael's borderline Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and adds "well then at least kiss my hand" and I laugh but oblige. He rolls the ball and the excitement that comes out of him as the ball goes into the 9000 is so contagious. "You have a lucky kiss!" He says and grabs my jaw and kisses me. "Oh my god" I say as I pull out of the kiss and the smile on his face is wide enough to make me smile too. We pull out the 14 tickets we won and walk around more. "Okay what next big shot?" I ask and he rolls his eyes. "That was all you" he says, referring to the ski ball. I shake my head but then point to the basketball hoops. "Okay" he says and we walk to the hoops. I place in six coins and five basketballs come out of each cage. A bell rings and me and Luke both grab the basketballs and aim in the hoops that are moving. He bumps my hip and makes me lose my balance, making one of my basketballs off and not getting into the hoop. To get revenge I smack his ass and the blush that spreads on his face as he looks around to see if anyone else saw makes him miss two more baskets. He still ends up winning and folds up the 23 tickets we won and slides them in his pocket. "Oh hell yeah" he says and pulls me to the race games. We take a seat in the fake car seats, putting in three coins each and select our fancy cars. "You're going to lose this too" he says with a smirk and I roll my eyes. I think of Michael and how unimpressed he would be with the cheap graphics of this game but know Ashton would enjoy it because the stupid animated girls opening the race with giant boobs. The race begins and since we have to have our hands on the steering wheels we don't try and mess each other up, but sometimes "bastard" and "asshole" come out in spite. I win and I get to kiss the fake-mad look off Luke's face that I find so adorable. "Pac man dude" he says and points to the pac man machine. "Aw but they're back to back" he says in a sad tone when we approach the machines. "And?" I ask and he shrugs. I put in three coins as he walks to the other side where the other pac man machine is backed up against mine. We both start at the same time and Luke comes back to my machine only after probably two minutes and I roll my eyes. He puts his chin on my shoulder as I play and says "I can't do good when you aren't there" and it causes me to smile. "Flirt" I tease and he kisses my cheek. After i finish my game, winning a lofty 10 tickets we walk around more, Luke pointing out all the little's he thinks are cute and it makes me smile.   
We spend 12 other coins on the pinball machine, a lame dance game, whack-a-mole and with three left we go to the photo booth. "Okay we have to do something stupidly stereotypical like you sit on my lap or kiss my cheek" Luke says and I laugh hysterically. "Oh my fucking god" I say through a laugh and he takes my three coins and puts his coins and mine in the machine. I laugh but oblige and sit on his lap and put my arms around his shoulder and kiss his cheek and after the first photo snaps we run out of ideas. "Wait, one where it looks like I'm strangling you" he says and it makes me laugh again. He makes his eyes wide and gently puts his hands around my neck and after the photo snaps I can't help but laugh. "For real kiss this time though" I say softly and he nods. I kiss him gently and think to myself "this one is so mine" and tickle his neck as the photo snaps and the smile he has that you can see as he kisses me is so perfect. "Three more" he says and I nod. "Funny faces?" I ask and he nods. I cross my eyes, pull my ears and blow air under my lips so I look like a monkey and with my eyes crossed I can't see what silly face Luke is pulling but I know he won't fail to make me laugh. "Confused" i say and he raises his eyebrow. I raise mine and the photo snaps and we both ponder the last one. "Okay you on my lap this time and do stupid stereotypical cheek kiss one" I say and he laughs but gets up and sits on my lap after I sit down. I feel his lip ring when he kisses my cheek and photo snaps, freeing us from this incredibly small and claustrophobic space. The printer on the outside of the booth prints the photos and they make me smile so wide. "We're literally the two most compatible human beings ever" Luke says and it makes me laugh, I wouldn't exactly word it like that but I agree. We walk up to the counter and the Lady counts our tickets, telling us our total is eighty nine. "Close your eyes" I say and he rolls his eyes but obliges. I look around at all the small prizes and roll my eyes at how stupid they all are until I find the tiny penguin statuette and immediately point to it and the lady gets it for me. I take it and hide it behind my back and tell Luke that it's his turn. I close my eyes and wait and finally when he tells me I can open my eyes I am met with a handful of colourful guitar picks. "Thank you" I say an he nods. I hand him the tiny penguin and internally celebrate as a wide smile spreads on his face. It really is the little things that impress him. "You have nineteen tickets left" the lady informs us. "Thanks" Luke says and takes the remaining tickets off the counter. He rips two off and hands me one and sticks one in his back pocket, I suppose for a memory. With the remaining tickets he scans the room and finds a little that looks about 5 and I smile as I watch him get on his knees by the boy and talk to him softly, handing him the tickets and making the little so happy. When he gets up and comes back by me I can't help but give him a huge kiss because that was one of the cutest things I've ever seen him do. "That was so nice" I say and he nods. "He was really happy and it was so simple, I mean just giving tickets to a little does so much" he says. We leave the arcade and go back to his house, wasting our last day with pizza and films and lots of kisses. ----------  
Michael's point of view   
"Yeah yeah no problem" I hear Ashton say, and I roll over and he's not there but I can hear his voice from down the hall. I grab all the covers and wrap them around me and walk out of our room but only going to the edge of the hallway to see who it is. "Great thanks man, I'll drop her off in a few hours" I recognise as our neighbour Zayns's voice. "Great see you then!" Ashton says and closes the door. "Morning sunshine" I mumble and fall on the couch with the covers. "Morning cupcake. That was Zayn, we're going to watch Lilliana today, he said Lou bragged to him about how much fun Luxie had with us" he says and flashes a large smile. "We're watching Lux today though?" I ask. "Not like we can't watch both and Lou and Zayn both said they get on with each other so I figure why not going to the park or summat so they can just play with each other and all we have to do is make sure they're fed and had proper time to sleep around midday. Zayn is paying us and I think Lou is too" he says and I wave a dismissing hand in the air. "What's for brekkie?" I ask. "Hot cereal for you and I'm having waffles" he says and tries to mask a laugh. "There's no way in hell I'm eating hot fuckin cereal and not eating waffles just so you know" I say blatantly and he full on laughs and I just smile. He falls over the back of the sofa and onto me and shoves a dry waffle in my face that is really hot. "Eat it you demanding bastard" he giggles as he smushes the waffle all over my face. "My mouth is over here" I say and point to my mouth, "you've got the waffle in the wrong place" I say and giggle as he smushes the waffle agains my forehead. "God damn it Ash now I have to shower again" I groan and he laughs "but I only got it on your face" he says and I narrow my eyes and look straight at him and I can feel waffle bits on my chest but I dare not look down at my chest and see all the things I've been hiding for so long. "only on my face yeah...? Look at my chest bastard" I whisper, and when he looks he starts laughing hysterically. He abruptly stops laughing and gets a smirk on his face and says "or I could..." And leans down and starts eating the little bits "...clean you off" and continues eating the bits off my bare chest. "Oh and I'm the bad example" I mutter and he laughs "what?! This is pure innocence! Bad example is humping things in public and yelling the word 'balls' in the middle of assembly at school" he says and I laugh at the memories. "Good times" I say and he nods.  "Well go take that shower and get some proper clothes on because the little's will be dropped off soon" he says and slides off of me and walks back into the kitchen "but I haven't had my brekkie yet!" I whine. As I walk away three waffles come flying at me; one hits me in the back of the head, one hits the floor by my feet and the third hits the wall next to me. "I'm not cleaning that up" I say as I point to the grease stain the waffle on the wall made and grab the ones on the floor and throw them back in the kitchen at Ashton and walk to the shower. I sigh that I don't have an iPod for music and I don't want to go out the door to get the radio and get the waffles thrown at me again. I take my pyjama flannel pants and briefs off and try not to look at myself in the mirror, afraid to see purple, black, and blue; afraid to see cuts and scars, constant reminders of being pushed into table corners and being shoved into metal locker doors. I hastily hop in the shower and tap the cold water and hum Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day. Just as I thought the waffle war was over Ashton proves me wrong by bursting through the bathroom door shouting and opening the shower door and throwing four waffles at me. I cringe at the sight of the now soggy waffles and he runs out of the bathroom, clothes wet and leaving a trail of water behind. I roll my eyes and ask myself "what am I going to do with him?" And continue showering, avoiding the bits of soggy waffles all over the shower floor. Not cleaning that up either.   
After my shower I go into my room and close my eyes tightly before I put a new pair of briefs on and some black skinnies and the black jumper that I love because the sleeves are so long. I open my eyes and put two mismatched black socks on and walk in the living room and look around for Ashton. A note on the counter says "hide and go seek, I have summat you want. x" and I sigh. "Goddamn it Ashton this flat is smaller then you think apparently" I yell and begin opening cabinets in search for my mentally five year old boyfriend. "Suuuunshiiiiineee" I say in a sing-song voice, dragging out the vowels. I look under the couch, in both bathrooms, both bedrooms, all the closets, the office, all the kitchen cabinets and he's not there anywhere. I hear a knock at the door and I am unsure if I should get it. I am terrified of knocks on doors and door bells ringing. I slowly go to the door and open it and Ashton is casually sitting on a lounge chair acting like he is tanning and sipping on iced tea. "Who said I'd be in the flat?" He asks, and yawns like he's bored. I laugh and say "who said you wouldn't be in the flat?" And smirk. "Touché" he says and nods. "What is it that you had and I want?" I ask and put my hands behind my back. "Oh nothing, that was just a push with the shove kinda thing to make you come looking for me" he says smiling under his sunglasses. I sit on the edge of the lounge chair and tickle Ashton's feet and he giggles but then it gets silent. "I uh..." He says and puts his arm out and moves his bracelets so I can see the tally mark scar, the newest line fresh and red across all the others that are almost all healed. It hurts to see that but he promised he'd be done and i trust him so I know he won't ever hurt himself again. I nod and he slides the bracelets back into their rightful places, doing their job of covering the scars. "You don't have to wear those if you don't want to, new life, new rules" I quote, and motion to the bracelets. "I'm still... adjusting, but I will take them off eventually, I just, like, they're sort of part of me now? I don't feel them anymore and they don't bother me so I don't mind 'em but I probably should take them off and let my wrists breathe a bit, haven't in four years maybe five" he says and I nod, understanding what he is saying about how they're part of him, just summat he got used to seeing and feeling. I grab his hands and move the bracelets over and kiss his wrists; scars and all, and he watches me the whole time with sorrowed eyes. He pulls his hands back and holds them tightly to his chest and looks down at them. "Hey listen to me, I think you're perfect okay? Those scars don't make me love you any less, they probably make me love you more and I want to be able to set you free from whatever you feel about those scars, I don't know if you're embarrassed by them or scared of what people will say but who cares what people say or think? be you because that's why I love you" I say and pull his hands in my lap, running my fingers over his scars through the gap in his structure of bracelets to cover them. "Thank you cupcake I love you too" he says, almost whispering. "A...and you don't have to wear long jumpers and long pants to cover your bruises and scars" he says and reaches over to my arm and slides my sleeves up. When I put my head down and stare into my lap trying not to look at my arm he gently swipes a finger down my forearm. "Just to let you know you don't walk alone" he whispers in my ear, referring to me humming in the shower. I silently laugh at that cheesy comment and he smiles because I think that's what he was trying to make me do. We sit for awhile and I continue to use my thumbs to rub gently under his bracelets and he closes his eyes and leans his head slightly back, sensitive about people touching his cuts, but melting into my gentleness and the fact that someone actually cares, it almost looks like ecstasy but not from pleasure but from feeling loved through such a small but meaningful gesture.   
"We could probably make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the littles to eat at the park" he suggests. "I can do that" I say and get up abruptly and quickly kiss his knuckles before going inside the flat and locking the door so he can't come in. I walk over to the kitchen and turn the radio on low and get the jars of peanut butter and jelly and two knives. I search for the bread in the pantry and organise it whilst I'm in it because it's a mess, Ashton. After all the things are on the counter I need I start to make the sandwiches, half listening to the door and half listening to the radio. "Michael Gordon Clifford let me back into this fucking flat right now!" Ashton yells as he jiggles the door handle and bangs on the door. "Rock rock till you drop, rock rock never stop" I sing along, smugly, whilst putting peanut butter on the bread. "Bastard!" He yells and I hear him plop back down on the lounge chair. "Love you too" I yell back sarcastically and I hear him laugh. After I finish the sandwiches I wrap them in cling wrap and put them in a market bag and go back to the door. Ashton is still on the lounge chair, glaring at me. I giggle and open the door fully and start to walk back into the flat. "Motherfucker" he says and abruptly jumps off the lounge chair, moving it a few feet and chasing me into the flat. I run and jump on our bed and curl into the fatal position and he comes seconds later and jumps next to me and as I suspected starts tickling me.   
Our tickles end up in long kisses and grabby hands. "You're a bad influence Michael Clifford" he says as he ruffles a hand through my hair and sits up. "I like it when you use my full name Ashton Irwin" I say and he giggles. "Okay Michael Clifford" he says and I smile in approval. "Mykul and Ashtun!!" Lux yells from the living room. We both laugh before walking out and finding Lou and Lux on our couch. I'm so glad they just came in and didn't knock or ring the bell. "Oh god don't you dare do each other in front of the girls" Lou says and we both laugh, and I look over at Ash and he has disheveled hair and his lips are red and his clothes are also disheveled and he looks at me and understands what she is saying. "No! We had a tickle and a few kisses that's all" Ashton assures and she rolls her eyes in fondness before standing up and handing Ashton a bag full of Lux things. "Well Lux I'm off, have a good day and play nice" Lou says and leans down to Lux. "Wuv yew mommy" Lux says and me and Ash both smile at the cuteness. "Love you too baby have a good day" Lou says, kisses Lux on the forehead and waves at me and Ashton as she walks out. "Luxie how does the park sound?" Ashton asks, getting on the ground and laying on his belly near Lux, leaning on his elbows and crossing his ankles. Lux looks up from her colouring book and smiles, nodding and humming "mhm." The doorbell rings and it makes me hop in the air in surprise and my hands start to shake a bit but I go over to the door and I sigh in relief as a happy Zayn and Lilliana greet me. "Love this is Michael, he's gonna watch you today and I'm going to surprise daddy because today five years your daddy and I got married so it's our anniversary" Zayn explains, and it melts me inside, loving how in love they are and how gently Zayn explains this to his little. "Okay papa" Lilliana says in a sweet small voice. "Be back soon, love you baby girl" Zayn says and plants a kiss on Lilliana's cheek. "Love you too papa" Lilliana whispers and kisses his cheek back. Zayn smiles and sets her down and he ruffles a hand through her blonde hair before she runs in our flat, excited to see Lux. "Hey bro thanks so much for watching her, we should be back tonight around nine... Oh and uh here's the money" he says and hands me a few bills folded up. Out of respect and modesty and my lack of care for money I just stuff the bills in my back pocket and say a quick "thanks."  "No, thank you" he says and walks off to his flat, and waves behind his shoulder before going into his flat and closing the door behind him. I go back into our flat and smile when I see my boyfriend sitting on the floor Indian style next to the littles. "Ladies, would you like to go to the park?" Ashton asks and I giggle at his fake American accent. "Yeah!" They both shout and Ashton hops up. "Mikey... Michael Clifford would you mind getting the sandwiches for the lovely Sheila's we have the honour of chauffeuring around today?" He asks and I laugh. "Yes sir" I say and salute. I walk to the kitchen and open the fridge and grab the sandwiches and a few juice boxes and some random cookies and crisps from the cabinet. After they are all placed in a bag I go back to the living room and Ashton has both little's standing on the couch. "Now, who would you like to carry you?" He asks and Lilliana runs to me and stands in front of me with her hands behind her back clutched together, and looks up at me, fondness growing in her eyes and no trace of fear, but a shyness that leaves a slight pink on her cheeks when she asks "would you carry me, please?" And her politeness and smartness surprise me until I think about her parents. Liam being polite and Zayn being brilliant only means she will grow up and be a great girl. "I'd love to" I say and smile, and she smiles. I get down on my knees and she hops on my back piggyback style and lets a small giggle loose. I watch Ashton gently pull Lux in his arms and lift her above his head and place her on his shoulders, admiring his arms. The position is perfect for Lux because she immediately dives her hands into his curly hair and giggles as he shakes his head and laughs. Ashton grabs the keys and I grab the bag of food and we walk out of the flat, and I have to remind Ashton of Lux on his shoulders so he doesn't hit her head on the doorframe. He bends down when he comes through the door and locks the door behind us. "Lilliana which way is the park?" I ask and turn my head to see her out of the corner of my eye. "Down the street and to the left, papa and daddy take me there a lot" she says and points down the street. Ashton nods and follows as I walk with Lilliana. "I like your hair" she whispers in my ear as we walk. "Thank you I like yours too"  I whisper back and she giggles. "What music do you like?" I ask, and feel stupid after I ask because she's only four. "Oh all kinds, Papa and Daddy let me listen to their iPods sometimes" she says, and continues surprising me by her vocabulary and clear words.  
 We walk in mostly quiet, randomly I'll ask her questions about her, and she seems to really like it. "The park is up there" she says and points to the park. I look back at Ashton who is talking to Lux whilst walking behind us a few feet. I smirk at Ashton and he notices and starts to pick up the pace, holding onto Lux's thighs as he speeds up. "Hold on Lilliana" I say and hold her tighter whilst still being gentle. I start to run and Lilliana giggles as I run and I laugh a little too because her giggle is contagious. I can hear Ashton and Lux giggling too and it makes me so happy. Me and Lilliana beat Ash and Lux to the park and right away both little's run to the slides. Ashton and I walk to the swings and sit down and watch over the little's as we swing. "This is amazing, I really enjoy this" he says with a large smile, motioning to the park and the little's and us swinging. "I like it too" I say and grab his hand. We hold hands as we swing in silence, occasionally kissing and gently rubbing patterns into each other's arms, hands, and thighs where our hands are joined together.   
After the little's play for awhile they both come up to us and Lilliana politely asks "can we please have juice boxes?" Ashton stares at Lilliana with a shocked look that makes me laugh. "Hey squirt you're really smart" Ash says to her and she gives him a toothless grin and squints her eyes. "Okay grape or apple?" I ask. "Gwape!" Lux exclaims. "Apple, please" Lilliana says and Ashton again marvels in her politeness and smarts. "Thank you" Lillian's says as I hand her the juice box. She stabs the straw in without a problem but Lux has trouble with hers and Ashton grabs it and says "here let me help you" and stabs the straw through the foil on the juice box. "Say thank you" Lilliana whispers. "Fank yew ashy" she says and I smile at the name. "Sandwiches?" Ashton asks the little's. "Not yet!" Lilliana exclaims. "Why not?" I whisper to her, leaning in like it's a secret. She leans into my ear and cups her hands around her mouth like she is going to tell me a secret but then yells "someone's poisoned the water hole!" Ashton laughs as I hold the ear that Lilliana just screamed in, and I admit it was funny but that really didn't feel good. "My daddy loves toy story" she shares, and starts to quote funny parts from the film, and I swear she's like a four year old walking dictionary with all her clear words and full sentences and she's just really smart and polite and I admire Zayn and Liam for raising her so well and plan to tell them tonight.   
The little's eat in silence on the park bench next to the swings, looking around and enjoying their time I suppose. "Do you... Do you want to have little's, like in the future?" Ashton asks me, stuttering a bit from nervousness for asking a sensitive and risky question. "I'd love that" I say with a wide smile, reassuring him that his question was not a problem. "I want to have a lot of little's" he says, cracking a smile. "Okay" I agree, kissing his knuckles. "Five years, let's wait at least five" he says and I nod.   
"Alright little Sheila's who wants to go back to the flat and put clips in Mikey's hair?" Ashton asks enthusiastically. "Me!" Lux yells. "Do you have any books I can read or crayons to colour?" Lilliana asks me quietly. "Yeah Lux brought a colouring book and crayons, let's go home and colour yeah?" I say to her and she smiles. "Do you like it better when people call you Lilly or Lilliana?" I ask as she hops on my back. "Lilliana" she almost whispers. "What's your full name?" I ask. "Lilliana Bethany Malik-Payne" she says. "That's pretty" I tell her as we walk. "Do you like being called Mike, Mikey or Michael better?" She asks. "Michael" I reply. "What's your full name?" She asks and gently pokes my cheek. "Michael Gordon Clifford, but one day I'm going to marry that boy..." I say and point to Ashton "and then I'll have his last name too like your daddy and papa have each other's last names" and smile as I think about spending the rest of my life with Ashton. "He's pretty" she says innocently and I smile and say "yeah love he is pretty, I got really lucky."  
 When we arrive to the flat a bloke about three or four years older than me and Ashton comes out of Zayn and Liam's flat. "Uncle Louis!" The little's shout as soon as they see him. I let Lilliana down and she runs to him and hugs his leg. "Oh how's it going my lovely Luxie and muffin brains?" He says and I laugh at the nickname for Lilliana, but I see how it works, considering she is cute like a muffin and she has brains. Lux runs to him next and he hugs her too, letting both little's crawl all over him. "You're the two new boys right?" He asks. "That's us" Ashton says and sticks out his hand. They shake and I shake his hand next. "I'm Ashton and this is my boyfriend Michael" Ashton introduces and I smile every time. "I'm Louis, Harry's husband" he says and flashes a genuine smile. "Zayn had us watch her tonight for whatever he was doing to surprise Liam" Ashton informs and Louis nods. "Well the love Cupid just went through their apartment and spiced it up a bit, if no one gets lucky tonight then I need to look into retirement" Louis says, and wiggles his eyebrows. Me and Ashton both laugh at his discreet reference. "Well have a nice night ladies and gentlemen" Louis says and waves as he walks away. "Love you uncle Louis!" Lilliana shouts behind him "love you too muffin brains!" He yells back. I unlock the flat and the little's run inside and Ashton plops on the couch whilst they play with Lux's toys from her bag. "Love you" I whisper behind him and he looks up at me and smiles "I love you too Michael Clifford." --------- Luke's point of view   
"Ready Lukey?" Calum asks and holds his hand out. "Ready princess" I reply and he nods. I put my hand in his and we walk into the porte entrance. "Leave all your love and your lovings behind, you can't carry it with you if you want to survive" plays through my head and I nod my head in agreement with the lyrics. I let Calum do all the talking, partly because of shyness and lack of smart things to say but the other half is that I'm stressed. After Calum successfully gets the tickets we go through security checks and finally board the plane. It's going to be a long ass motherfucking flight" I say to Calum and he laughs and nods. "Kiss?" He asks, and my stomach flip flops at the idea of being able to kiss him in public without being afraid anymore and I can see it in his eyes as I lean in to kiss him that he feels the exact same way and I can only remember a kiss that has ever tasted as sweet as this one does, and that was our first kiss.   
Calum passes out not a half hour into the flight but I am awake thinking, hating my thoughts sometimes. A few hours go by and breakfast is served, I order French toast and since Calum is still asleep I get him some too. "Breakfast princess" I say as I lift Calum's head to try and wake him. "What in the world?" Calum asks, still half asleep. "Brekkie babe" I say and motion to the tray table with his meal on it. His sleepy voice and squinty eyes makes me smile as I slide his food closer to him and he picks up his fork and knife and groans. "I'm fuckin lazy and tired how am I suppose to feed myself too?" Calum asks and leans back in his chair to go back to sleep. "Uh uh get up and eat" I say and poke his bicep. He doesn't move or anything and I sigh and say "you leave me no motherfucking choice" and dump a small amount of my water on his head to wake him up. He just shifts a bit and lazily wipes the water off his forehead and fringe. "Damn it Cal" I say and look around. I sigh before picking up my fork and poking him in the ribs with it, hard enough to get his attention but not hard enough to pierce through his skin or hurt him too much. "Ow what in the fucking bloody hells was that?" He asks and springs up. I laugh and he gives me an angry look as he eats his French toast, and I have to admit he is pretty hot when he is borderline angry like he says about me. "Can't get you to 'Murica on an empty stomach can we?" I ask him smugly and he just rolls his eyes. I plant little kisses up  his arm that is tightly clutching the armrest out of frustration and he softens until he cracks a small smile. "There's my smiley princess" I whisper and he smiles wider. "Thank you for the food and sorry for being a prat" he says and I nod. After we finish our food I take the plates and things to the back of the plane where a flight attendant takes them and says "thank you young man" and I just nod. Calum stares at me as I sit down and doesn't say a word. "What the hell you lookin at?" I ask him and he rolls his eyes "I'm looking at my boyfriend, damn it, is that a sin?" He says in a mocking tone. "That could be debated" I say smugly and he laughs. "Oh I bought you summat, It's in the bag that's up there" he says and points to the overhead compartments. I get up and check to see what it is, slowly opening the bag in case he's playing some sort of joke on me. When I open the bag I see a black patch of faux fur and as I pull it out I discover that it is a penguin pillow pet. I quickly shove the bag back in the overhead and sit down with my penguin pillow pet and hug Calum "thank you thank you thank you this is so adorable thank you awhh" I say. "No problem, saw it and thought of you and couldn't resist, so I bought it" he says with a smile and it makes me smile because he's such a thoughtful boyfriend. I put the armrest in between us up and I lean over and put the pillow pet on his shoulder and lean on his left shoulder and he immediately wraps his arms around me and puts his head in my neck and kisses my cheek a few times. I giggle but not long after am I comfortable enough to sleep and I drift right off. When I'm alone it is hard to fall asleep because I feel unprotected, cold, lonely and I am stuck with my thoughts that make the hole of sleeping alone darker and larger,  but when Calum is even in the room, when I know he is there I feel safe and I can sleep, and with his reassuring and strong arms wrapped around me I feel like nothing can hurt me and that's how I fall asleep.   
"It's my turn to wake you up Lukey" Calum says and shakes my shoulders gently. "Goodmorning" he says and I smile "god damn morning people" I say and he laughs. "We're here?" I ask and he nods. I smile and get a very happy feeling, like I just passed an exam or got given a gift I really wanted. "Let's go then" he says and I get up and stretch and try to collect our things. I put my guitar on my back and hand him his bass and he swings it on his back and I hand him his bag and I grab mine. Calum hands me my pillow pet and I smile and give him a quick kiss to say thanks again and walk off the plane. Security is ridiculous like Ashton said and I feel really uncomfortable the whole time. "Were almost done" Calum says and grabs my hand. We finish security and head to the doors. "Okay so you have the address right?" I ask and Calum nods. He pulls out a slip of paper and shows it to me and I nod. He takes it to a cabby driver and asks "how much would it be to take us here?" And shows him the slip of paper. The cabby gives us a price and we aren't familiar with American currency so we can't decide if that's a fair price or not and the cabbies probably all cost the same anyways so we get in the cab and he drives. We watch the city go by, Calum's inner photographer coming out and snapping a lot of creative photos. "I'm so excited, they're going to go fucking ballistic" I say and he smiles "my stomach is like..." He says and scrambles his hands together in the air. I laugh but nod in agreement. "Oh I found my centuries old iPod and I loaded all my music into it" I say and fish out the iPod from my birthday a few years ago when the iPod first came out. "Woah I'm so used to IOS 7 and this is like a dinosaur... fuck" Calum says as I hand him the iPod nano. I pull out headphones and my double headphone jack and say "yeah well they can't track us on this thing so I thought it would be a good idea cause I can't live without music" and he nods. I plug in the headphones and give him a set and I put on a set. I can hear as he scrolls through the songs from the familiar sound of the clicker from the nano. "Pressure" by The 1975 plays and I look over at him and roll my eyes because that is such a Calum thing to do. He flashes me a smile and I smile back and throw a playful hand through his hair and he smacks my hand away but kisses my knuckles as I pull back. I put a reassuring hand on his thigh and rub meaningless patterns on his thigh to calm him down and maybe calm myself down too. "She Way Out" plays next and Calum plays air bass and it makes me giggle. It gets quiet and we just watch as town after town, all unfamiliar pass us by. "What's your accent?" The cabbie asks us through the rear view mirror. "Australian" I say and he nods. "We should be there within twenty minutes" he says and Calum's eyes go wide. I grab his hand and give it a squeeze and he nods at me, saying thank you. As the cabbie said we arrive minutes later at a beautiful looking flat complex and Calum pays, we grab our stuff and head to the main office. When we walk in Calum introduces us to a bloke that only looks a few years older than us "you're Harry right? I'm Calum and this is Luke" and we shake his hand. "Yeah I'm Harry, hope your flight was alright?" He asks "wasn't bad thank you, Ashton and Michael don't know we're here so we're gonna go surprise them, what flat is theres?" I ask. "203" he says. "Brilliant thank you" Calum says and we walk out. We find their flat and place out stuff outside. "Ready?" He asks and I nod. He knocks on the door and Michaels voice yells "one sec" and shortly after the door opens. My stomach drops and Michael makes a strange noise like he is being choked and runs and hugs me and Calum. "Ashton!" Michael yells and it scares the shit out of me because it sounds like he is being hurt and not even a half second later Ashton comes running through the flat to Michaels rescue. "Guys" Ashton chokes out through tears and runs and hugs us.  ---- Michael's point of view   
"Yeah I'm going to go in the room and play my cajon for a bit" Ashton says and kisses my forehead before going into our room and turning on the radio to play to whatever is on. I turn back to the television and keep clicking through the channels till I find an interesting tattoo programme. I watch for about 15 minutes and there's a knock on the door. I shake a little but I know I have to get it because Ashton didn't hear it. "one sec" I yell and untangle myself from the blankets and pillows to get the door. I open the door to see Luke and Calum watery eyed and slightly shaking. Immediately I start crying and my hands fly up to cover my face and I start sobbing. I make a strangled noise and I feel strangled because my two best friends are standing right in front of me. I grab them in a hug and we all cry. "Ashton!" I yell and it comes out like a violent scream for help. Before I can even blink Ashton is in the room and stares at Calum and Luke and tears flood his eyes. "Guys" Ashton chokes out and runs the few feet he is away from us and joins in and I chuckle at the image in my head of what we look like, four idiots crying on each other on the floor of a flat.  -------- Ashton's point of view  
Michael flips through the channels as I finish cleaning up our lunch. "Yeah I'm going to go in the room and play my cajon for a bit" I say and kiss him on the forehead as I walk by and go into our room. I hit the radio on and let the music play and I find the drum pattern as my hands beat along to Rick Allen's drumming in "Billy's Got A Gun." I get lost in the song and I don't even feel my body move as I hear Michael scream my name like he is being hurt. Everything blurs as my body goes off impulse and I'm in the living room quicker then I've ever moved before. I stop half way at the sight of my two best friends hugging Michael. My stomach drops and so many questions run through my head but all I can say is "Guys" and I can feel the catch in my throat and the tears running down my face but the only thing registering through my brain is the fact that Calum and Luke are here in my living room. Actually here and I can touch them and hear their voices clearly and see them laugh and it's so surreal because a week ago we were talking on the mobile and now they're right in front of me. I run to them and hug them and I let the tears fall and their embrace feels so good and I'm the happiest person in the world right now. We are all piled on each other, a mess of limbs embracing one another and Michael yells  "Jesus christ I am never letting you two out of my fucking sight again" and I laugh but agree with him because leaving them was one of the hardest things I've ever done. "I love you I love you I love you" I say and kiss each of them on the cheek. "Okay let's go to the couch this floor is uncomfortable and Mike's knee is crushing my ribs" Calum says and we all laugh. "My...ass" Luke says, and oh god I missed Calum's laugh so much, that genuine laugh of fondness at anything Luke says because he thinks he's just the funniest person in the world. We all get up and sit on the couch and Calum almost sits down before saying "oh fuck the stuff is still outside" and going to get their things. He comes back inside carrying two guitar bags and two duffel bags and sets them beside the couch and sits back down. Luke gives him a quick kiss and says thank you and we all sit staring at each other and it's not awkward or boring because just being in their presence is enough for me. "Do you want like a tour of the flat?" Mikey asks and they both nod. We all get up and Mikey shows them the kitchen and the bathroom connected to the kitchen and I smile as he intentionally passes up the spare bedroom because I already know he is saving that for last. He shows them our bedroom and the office and the hall bathroom, still slightly shaking from the shock of them being here. "What's that room?" Calum asks and points to the room that they're going to stay in. "Oh...that room?" Mikey asks smugly. "That's just where we keep all our prostitutes. Anyways!" Mikey says nonchalantly and moves on. I grab Calum and Luke's wrists and I open the door and push them inside and yell "it's your room!" And they both start to get emotional again "like I said, where we keep our prostitutes" Mikey mumbles and Luke starts laugh-crying, laughing because of Mikey's joke but crying because he is touched and the laughter was just the right trigger to have him spill. Calum hugs Luke and then hugs me, being so grateful up and down by repeating a mantra of "I love you's" and "thank you's." Luke hugs Michael and I start to get choked up again cause they're actually here.  
 After our hugs me and Mikey leave them in their room to unpack. We have a cuddle on the couch and watch some American rom com on mute. "I've been thinking about using that office room as a band room, and Luke and Cal being here gives me all the more reasons so we can be like playing together again and in a decent place unlike your damned garage" Mikey says. "Fuckin brilliant" I say and nod and he's definitely right about my damned garage, what a hell of a place to play.  -------- Calum's point of view   
Michael and Luke leave us to unpack and get settled and it's all sort of overwhelming but exciting. "Here Lukey" I say as I hold out his guitar bag. "Thank you" he says and takes it and carries it across the room. I zip open my backpack and bring it to the black dresser that is closest to the closet door and put it on the floor to unpack. Slowly I take my stuff out and neatly fold it and place it in the dresser, I've always been the neatest out of all the boys but Michael comes behind me cause he's slightly OCD. I glance over at Luke a couple times and he just tosses the clothes in the drawers and there's no way in fucking hell our room is going to get as messy as his was at his house. "Luke why don't you fold your clothes?" I ask. "Too lazy" he says nonchalantly. He really isn't all that lazy he just doesn't have a word for 'I can do it it's just I don't really care that much' so he just blames it on being lazy. I continue unpacking, neatly and slowly, humming a mix of Nirvana songs and after my clothes are unpacked I organise the pictures that I brought on my dresser so I can hang them up when I get tape. Luke finishes unpacking first and he waits for me on the edge of the bed. After I'm done I go to the bed and I sit on his lap and his arms snake around my waist and he puts his chin in my neck and mumbles "I love you." I close my eyes and relax into Luke and listen to his breathing as we sit in our room in silence. "Should we go out there?" I ask. "Yeah probably" he says. I try to get up but Luke just swings me around and picks me up and carries me out of the room and all I can do is giggle because how in the hell do you go from a dramatic silence to playful in three seconds. "So strong" I say and kiss him on the lips as he carries me. When we get to the living room he drops me on The couch and I see Mikey and Ash on the other one. "Are you two hungry?" Ashton asks. "Actually a bit yeah" Luke says and I nod. "We have food here or we could go out for food or we can get delivery it's up to you" Mikey says. "Here is fine just like whatever you got" I say and they both nod. Ash gets up and walks to the kitchen and opens the fridge and calls out "we got cold pizza, I mean it could be warmed up if you fancy that, orange juice, eggs, yogurt, sodas, Chinese rice, bacon, cheese, lunch meat, milk for cereal, and in the freezer..." He closes the fridge and opens the freezer drawer and picks it up with "pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, chicken wings, ice cream, Popsicles, breakfast wraps, like those tiny burritos filled with breakfast stuff, waffles, well one waffle, chicken nuggets, uhhhh" and slams the freezer drawer shut and goes to the cabinets, opening and closing while shouting their contents "hot cereal, rice cakes, peanut butter, ohhhh nutella, jelly, marshmallow fluff, cereal, Michael's  frosted oatmeal cookies..." Michael hears this and yells "hell fucking no, do not touch those or I will bite your giant ass hands off, those are so off limits!" Me, Luke, an Ashton all laugh but Michael is dead serious even though he knows that will never fly. Ash continues in the pantry with "bread, bananas, oranges, canned peaches, mangoes, crisps, crackers, dry noodles, Kool-aid packets, jello, and in the back hidden behind everything a huge but half empty assorted bag of sweet ass candy that I did not know we bought" and he glares at Michael and says "fucking addict" and Michael just laughs and shrugs his shoulders. I look over at Luke and say "you pick... I'll eat whatever." He laughs and buries his face in his large hands and groans. Mikey leans in close and whispers "the pressure is on" with a smirk and he's right cause all three of us are looking at him, Ashton with a look that screams "hurry up bitch" and I just laugh. "Damn it don't laugh at me there's so many different things" he whines. "If you don't fuckin choose then I will pick for you" Ashton says in a mock angry tone when in reality he is amused with Luke's distress, much like Mikey and the look of enjoyment on his face. "Okay whatever then pick what you want... fuck" Luke says to Ashton and shoves his face into the couch. "Nobody likes me" Luke says, muffled by the couch cushion his face is pressed against. I roll my eyes because he knows that's not true but I still do what I know he wants. When I put my arms around his middle and lean into him and plant little kisses on his neck he leans back up out of the couch cushion and has a cheeky grin on his face and kisses me. "Cheesy prick" I say when he pulls out of the kiss and he gives me a pouty look and I can't help but smile and kiss him again because fuck, I have the cutest boyfriend ever. 

 

Read "ain't that funny" for part two(:


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